Viacom's Carriage Renewal Talks With Dish Break Down

Viacom Inc. said its discussions with satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp. to renew carriage of its TV channels have broken down, and its programming will likely go dark for Dish customers.

The media company, owner of networks such as Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and TV Land, accused Dish of making unreasonable demands, despite its offer of a "best-in-class" deal on rates and terms for carriage of its networks.

"We are extremely disappointed that DISH has not engaged in a serious way to reach an agreement for Viacom's number one family of cable networks," Viacom said in a statement. "DISH has made demands that are designed to be impossible to meet in order to take our negotiations public and likely force our programming off the air."

The negotiations have been closely watched by Viacom investors, who were worried when some small cable operators dropped Viacom channels in 2014.

Viacom shares fell 7% on the news in early afternoon trading.

Wall Street has been looking at the Dish talks as an important measuring stick for Viacom to prove that its channels can continue to receive wide distribution even as cord-cutting adds pressure to the television industry.

Dish is known for bruising carriage negotiations with media companies and has had standoffs with other big conglomerates including Time Warner Inc., 21st Century Fox and Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal, as well as various TV station-owners.

A Dish spokesman had no immediate comment.

Viacom said it had begun running a crawl on its channels for Dish customers informing them of the contentious state of negotiations.

Write to Keach Hagey at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 19, 2016 14:15 ET (18:15 GMT)

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