Viacom Apologizes For Ads Attacking Time Warner Cable
Media Company Says It Was Unable to Pull Jan. 2 Newspaper Ads Following Resolution of Carriage Dispute
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 1/2/2009 6:20:00 AM
Viacom issued an apology Friday for ads blasting Time Warner Cable over the companies' carriage dispute that ran in Jan. 2 editions of newspapers in at least five markets, one day after reaching an eleventh-hour agreement in principle resolving the fight.
The confusion was caused by "the timing of the agreement and the New Year's Day holiday," which Viacom claimed left it unable to pull the previously placed ads. Print ads ran in newspapers in New York City, including The New York Times; Cleveland; Orlando, Fla.; Dallas; and Raleigh, N.C.
In a statement, Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman said, "We apologize to Time Warner Cable and our viewers for any inconvenience or confusion these ads have caused. We look forward to continuing our positive and productive partnership with Time Warner Cable well into the future."
The fact that Viacom bought attack ads to run in Jan. 2 editions clearly indicates the media giant had not expected to resolve the standoff with Time Warner Cable as quickly as it did.
Viacom on Tuesday threatened to pull the plug on all 19 MTV Networks channels at 12:01 a.m. on New Year's Day, when the previous carriage agreement with Time Warner Cable expired, unless the MSO agreed to a 12% fee hike.
Shortly after 1 a.m. on Thursday, Viacom and Time Warner Cable jointly announced that they had reached a tentative agreement on carriage and that they expected to work out specific terms over the next several days. Contrary to Viacom's Jan. 2 ads, the MTVN services remained available to Time Warner Cable subscribers, as well as those of Bright House Networks.
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I would like to say what I really think about what they did, but it is unpublishable...so expletive deleted...
Bob - 1/5/2009 1:12:00 PM EST -
Let also add the crappy scroll they had running through their channels. Maybe they can reimburse all the non Timw Warner cables companies for the amount of calls that they received from customers wondering if they were going to lose channels.
Very poor taste on Viacom's part. Next time they pull that stunt, we will give our customer's their phone number to call and complain to them.
Don - 1/5/2009 8:30:00 AM EST -
I also heard the radio ad on Jan 2 on a CBS owned radio station in LA.
It was even more appaling that the ad suggested that people contact other providers (Dish, DirecTV, UVerse, FiOS) who "care" about their customers. If I were TWC I wouldn't accept Viacom's apology and instead sue them for the potential damage to their business (some customers might still leave TWC thinking the agreement fell through and they would lose the channels soon).
Shame on Viacom for their underhanded tactics. They should have planned for the contingency of actually successfully negotiating a contract and provided alternate ads to fill the spots (such as thanking TWC for a successful negotation, thanking the customers for their patience, or even just a generic ad for the Viacom networks).
Dave - 1/3/2009 5:49:00 AM EST -
Viacom also had a running ad streaming during the Rush
concert they broadcast that night on VH1. That
amounted to 2.5 straight hours of advertising, crying
about the bad cable companies... Also, I have to
wonder how Rush would feel about their show being used
to shill Viacom.
Nick Giszpenc - 1/3/2009 12:11:00 AM EST -
They are just admitting to the ad's in newspapers, there were many more.
They did a huge ad buy in affected markets on CBS radio stations. a 60 second spot using voices/spots from everything from the Colbert Report to Southpark or MTV shows.
they dug deep in attacking Time Warner Cable for pulling the networks. Of course no mention of the steep rate increase Viacom was asking for.
sorry Viacom, I don't buy your BS. i'd rather have TWC say no to a rate increase than let you get away with it.
M D - 1/2/2009 6:15:00 PM EST
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