Category Archives: Children’s Television
Viacom Channels Go Dark on DirecTV
Last night at midnight, 20 million DirecTV subscribers lost 17 different Viacom channels. The channels lost include Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, and more.
DirecTV and Viacom conflict of carriage fees continues. DirecTV says Viacom wants a 30 percent increase in fees, which comes out to an additional $1 billion. Viacom’s Vice President for Corporate Communications Mark Jafar wrote on his company’s blog that the increase amounts to “a couple pennies per day, per subscriber”, that DirecTV has been paying “the same bargain rate” for Viacom programming for 7 years, and that Viacom “accounts for 20% of all viewing on DirecTV.”
USA Today reports that DirecTV subscribers who tune into Viacom channels will now see a “mix” channel of programming from other networks, such as Bravo, FX, and TBS. DirecTV is also making eight Encore movie channels, which are usually part of premium packages, available for free to all of its customers until July 31.
For more on DirecTV’s side of the argument, check out directvpromise. More on Viacom’s view can be found on the company’s blog and whendirecttvdrops.
Viacom Channels Could Go Dark On DirecTV
DirecTV is currently fighting with Viacom over their carriage agreements. If a settlement is not reached by tonight, 20 million DirecTV subscribers will lose 26 (including SD and HD) Viacom channels.
The 17 networks affected (without their corresponding HD channels) are:
- Palladia
- Centric
- Tr3s
- CMT
- Logo
- NickToons
- VH1 Classic
- TeenNick
- Nick Jr.
- Nick@Nite
- Spike
- BET
- VH1
- TV Land
- Comedy Central
- Nickelodeon
- MTV
For DirecTV’s side of the argument, check out directvpromise. Viacom’s view can be found on the company’s blog and whendirecttvdrops.
Seasame Street May Take a Trip to the Movies
The Hollywood Reporter reports that 2oth Century Fox has bought the movie rights to Seasame Street.
The show has had two other theatrical releases: Follow That Bird in 1985 and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland in 1999. The movies were distributed by Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures, respectively.
Weekly TV Update: May 28
Each week we bring you stories from around the Internet that you might have missed.
Don’t know what TV shows to look forward to? Here is a list of upcoming shows.
Robin Thicke apparently thinks he’s not famous enough to win ABC’s Duets. Then again, he is competing against Kelly Clarkson and John Legend.
History has a new miniseries about the Hatfields and the McCoys. It will star Kevin Costner.
Mediaite’s Sarah Devlin has an article about Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner’s Woman Problem.
Will the musical Rags be riches for Nickelodeon? The New York Daily News reviews the latest Nickelodeon Original Movie.
Nickelodeon Brings Figure It Out Back
Nickelodeon’s Figure It Out has been brought back into production, much to the excitement and dismay of 90s kids everywhere. New episodes will start airing next month with current Nick stars, such as Victoria Justice, Big Time Rush, and Jeanette McCurdy.
Here is the promo for the new version:
For those unfamiliar with the show, it’s What’s My Line? meets Nickelodeon. Celebrities, mostly from Nickelodeons shows, guess the unique talents of the kid contestants. The panelists have to ask the contestant yes or no questions hoping that they get a little closer to the hidden talent. In every round the panelists are given clues to help them. The longer it takes panelists to “Figure it Out”, the more prizes the kid wins. If the panelists never guess the kid’s talent, the kid wins the grand prize.
While the show may not be remembered as well as other Nick game shows such as Double Dare or Legends of the Hidden Temple. Figure It Out is very much a Nickelodeon show with a large fan base.
The new version of the show looks promising; despite the absence of original host Summer Sanders. Hopefully, there will be a shout out to the original Figure It Out. It is unlikely to happen, but fans of the 1997 version will keep their fingers crossed for an appearance from Kenan Thompson or Amanda Bynes.
Enjoy your walk down memory lane 90s kids!
Wait! What's A Dial? 