Lenexa, KS & New York City (CSi) – Negotiations between the media giant Viacom and the NCTC of Kansas, ran into early morning of April 1st.   The NCTC is the negotiating enity representing some 800 cable companies serving 5.3 million customers in 3500 communities spread across the United States.  

Negotiations finally concluded late Tuesday, with a tentative draft new agreement to be presented to the 800 cable companies covered by NCTC – which includes CSi – for individual evaluation. 

Viacom had previously informed the cable companies they would all be required to drop the Viacom networks at midnight EDT as a renewal agreement was not finalized at the terms originally proposed by Viacom.     The results of the marathon negotiation session will not be known until they are completed.

Viacom, the owner of cable networks such as Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, TV Land, CMT, and MTV, had wanted a rate increase that’s 40 times the rate of inflation* said the NCTC.   The small cable operators said “not so quick”.

In a separate but related dispute, Cable One, which serves 730,000 customers in 19 states, had the Viacom channels go blank.  Cable One, which serves Fargo, has stated its intent to replace the Viacom channels with other networks.

Over the weekend Viacom began running a crawl message on its channels that mischaracterized the dispute.  They portrayed the decision was being made by the cable companies and incorrectly stated the cable companies refused to negotiate.

Monday Viacom had made it clear that carriage was to cease March 31 unless an agreement had been reached.  No extension would be granted, and they – Viacom – wanted the channels to be pulled from the lineups.

As the witching-hour came & went,  negotiations continued,  while technicians and company officials waited in 3500 cable TV headends around the country to learn to outcome.

The group of small cable companies was concerned with the aggressive and excessive rates required by Viacom to renew the contract.  “Those costs get passed on directly to the viewer, ” said CSi General Manager Roy Sheppard.  “This is a pretty simple situation, Viacom wants more of the viewer’s money, and will use any tactic to get it.  We are trying to protect our customers from the mega-media companies that have significantly different agendas when it comes to costs. ”

* Source: 12-month period from January 2013 to January 2014, Bureau of Labor Statistics, released 2/20/14.