Viacom vs AT&T Battle Will Soon Impact Viewers

As I watched a bit of television Tuesday night, a strange message began to scroll across the bottom of my television. It read:

Your Satellite TV Provider is About to Drop this Channel and 22 More!

In that moment I was watching one of my favorite channels - BET. After making a quick “I’m infuriated with AT&T” post on Snapchat, I began to delve a bit more into the notification.

Apparently DIRECTV, U-verse TV, DIRECTV NOW and WatchTV currently carry up to 23 Viacom networks. These networks are: MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, VH1, BET, Paramount Network, Nick Jr., CMT, TV Land, Logo, MTV2, Nicktoons, TeenNick, MTV Classic, NickMusic, MTV Live, BET Her, CMT Music, BET Jams, Tr3s, BET Soul, BET Gospel and MTVU.

For a moment I considered just giving my flatscreens away. Aside from my incessant use of the ESPN and CNN channels, my televisions are generally tuned in to either BET or VH1. I pay AT&T nearly $100 per month for basic cable, no movies included - and their plan is to remove half of what I watch.

Viacom and AT&T are at odds over a new deal. According to Viacom - they are offering AT&T-DirecTV the ability to pay less tomorrow for Viacom channels than they pay today, which would enable AT&T to pass savings on to subscribers and lower monthly bills.

It appears that AT&T-DirecTV would prefer to simply drop Viacom’s networks from subscribers’ lineups.

Perhaps a mass exodus of AT&T-DirecTV customers will be the only way to get AT&T’s attention.