We've got Viacom spirit, how about you?
Those attending Friday night's homecoming football game for Capital City High School in Charleston, W.V., were greeted by an official appearance from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--which happens to be a Nickelodeon property that was recently removed, along with all the of the Viacom channels, from the city's local cable system, Suddenlink.
The latter carriage issue was, of course, the reason for the appearance by the costumed quartet. After failing to agree to licensing renewal terms, Suddenlink pulled all 22 Viacom channels from its program guide on Oct. 1 and has since made a range of alternative programming deals with other conglomerates and independent channels. You can see Sean Combs' Revolt TV or Glenn Beck's TheBlaze in Charleston, but you're out of luck if you want big, mainstream channels like Comedy Central, MTV or Nickelodeon.
And at this point, Viacom is apparently resorting to halftime stunts at high school football games to drum up some subscriber spirit.
"We're going directly to them and reaching out face-to-face," Viacom spokesman Mark Jafar told the West Virginia Gazette. "We'd love to get a deal done, but it doesn't appear that will happen anytime soon."
Over the summer, Viacom's Paramount Pictures unit successfully rebooted the theatrical end of the Ninja Turtles property with an eponymously titled film that grossed a very solid $190 million at the domestic box office. The property is also now a popular Nickelodeon animated series.
Not that cable subscribers in Charleston know anything about that right now.
As part of the ongoing kerfuffle, Viacom has blocked Suddenlink broadband subscribers from viewing Nickelodeon programming online.
For more:
- read this WV Gazette story
Related links:
Suddenlink adds another non-Viacom network, Sony Movie Channel
Doing the math on Suddenlink's decision to kick out Viacom: A good call by the cable company
Suddenlink inks deals with CBS, Diddy's Revolt, but not update on pending Viacom blackout
Suddenlink threatens blackout of Viacom channels