Viacom Signs with DirecTV Now

Viacom Signs with DirecTV Now

AT&T continues to pick up licensing rights for its highly anticipated internet video streaming platform.

On Tuesday, the telecom giant said that it has signed a multiyear contract with Viacom, Inc. Under terms of the agreement, AT&T’s heavily promoted DirecTV Now platform will carry 15 of the broadcaster’s most popular channels, including Comedy Central, CMT, Nickelodeon, Nick at Night, MTV, BET, TV Land, and Logo.

Viacom actually broadcasts 25 channels, but DirecTV Now will not carry all of them. This arrangement is almost unprecedented in the pay TV industry. Content providers typically insist that cable and satellite systems carry– and pay for- their less popular channels as a condition for licensing of the channels in high demand. Viacom’s inability to induce AT&T to accept such a deal may mean its negotiating position is weak.  Viacom has struggled recently in licensing talks with MediaCom, Frontier, Dish Network, and Charter Communications. SuddenLink and Cable One dropped its channels altogether. Now they claim that their profits have increased as a result. Dish Network, sensing desperation,  cited the SuddenLink and Cable One examples in driving a hard bargain with Viacom last August.

For DirecTV Now to offer a complete replacement for the conventional cable or satellite TV, it now needs to add licensing contracts from only three networks: Twenty-First Century Fox, CBS Corp, and AMC Networks. It’s agreement with Viacom makes completion of this project much more certain. DirecTV Now is rapidly gaining credibility in the industry, and the holdouts are likely to sign with it before December.

With its latest licensing contract, DirecTV Now is scheduled to carry more than 100 channels. AT&T says that it will offer the package for “a very aggressive price”.

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