Apparently if we start out drunkenly watching the South Park marathon tomorrow night, we’re going to get cut off in the middle, because Time Warner is dropping all its Viacom stations at midnight? I know Nikki Finke is often right about these things, but if this is really going to happen like twenty-six hours from now, doesn’t it feel like something we’d have heard about already?
But assuming it’s true, my first reaction was, “Oh shit, now how will I watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report?”
And then I remembered, “Online, at my desk, the day after they air, duh.”
And then I remembered, “Oh shit, Degrassi!”
And then I went and looked and saw we’re cool there, too. So do your worst, media megacorps. You’ve insulated me well from your possibly imaginary pissing contests.
UPDATE: Okay, I guess it’s probably true. Boo.
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I’m hoping this is one of those things that turns out to be nothing. Anyway, here’s the list of channels that might be affected in my area — kind of all of them! Maybe I should just cancel cable and watch everything online now that we can do so through our XBox.
I am now eligible to get Dish Network for free (through work). If we could figure out how to mount an actual dish on our building, that would probably be worth it.
Oh man, you’re going to drunkenly watch South Park too? Believe me, it’s way funnier that way.
Oh shit, not “Bromance”!!
Colbert/Daily Show aren’t back till Jan. 5, right? At least they have the weekend to hug-it-out-bitch, as I hear they call it in the Hollywood industry.
Why is it always TimeWarner in these fights? You never hear about Comcast or Cox canceling all of their most popular channels, but it seems like very few years TW is throwing Disney or NBC or Viacom off the air. Have they ever won a single one of these fights?
From what I’ve read, it’s not TW pulling this stuff, it’s Viacom – TW would be happy to continue airing the shows pending resolution, but Viacom’s trying to blackmail them into paying exorbitantly higher rates (in a down economy) for a bunch of crap that has decline in the ratings and some good stuff that is available online for free anyway. Something to do with the fact that Sumner Redstone owes, like, a bazillion dollars to a bunch of other people.
LTG, I think a few years ago it was Viacom and Dish Network.
So really, it’s always Viacom.
And yeah, it is Viacom threatening, not the other way around. If TW won’t shell out the money, they’re pulling the channels at midnight. This is particularly crappy since I’m in Florida, where our Brighthouse Network is part of . . . TW. ::sigh::
And Viacom really is putting it on thick. Have you seen the Dora ad? Good gravy, people. Have some shame.