Satellite TV giant Dish Network pulled the plug on MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and seven other channels early Tuesday in a contract battle with Viacom Inc. over the price of programming.
An estimated half-million Dish Network subscribers in Florida and all 9-million customers nationwide were affected.
"Those channels are gone," said Greg Mancuso, who sells Dish Network equipment and subscriptions at a CompUSA store on N Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa. "It's just a black screen."
Subscribers in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area and out-of-state markets such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles also lost access to their local CBS affiliates. Tampa Bay area Dish customers were spared that inconvenience because CBS affiliate WTSP-Ch.10 is not owned by Viacom.
For their trouble, bay area subscribers will get a $1 credit on their monthly Dish Network bill. The company's least expensive subscription costs $29.99 per month.
Both sides blamed the impasse on the other.
"Viacom, which owns CBS, got the air waves for free from the American public, allowing them to provide CBS," said Steve Caulk, a spokesman for Dish Network parent EchoStar Communications Corp. of Englewood, Colo. "Now they're using that as leverage to force us to pay ridiculous amounts for other channels people don't necessarily want."
The disruption is the largest since 2000, when a similar dispute between Time Warner cable and ABC blacked out service to 3.5-million cable customers.
A federal lawsuit EchoStar filed in January accused Viacom of illegally forcing it to carry MTV and other Viacom properties at unfair prices in exchange for the right to carry 18 CBS-owned stations in 16 media markets. EchoStar said Viacom sought rate increases of up to 40 percent over the length of the contract, which could total hundreds of millions of dollars.
Viacom spokeswoman Susan Duffy called the 40 percent figure "overblown."
"They (Dish Network) recently hiked their subscribers' bills by as much as $3 a month," Viacom said in a statement. "Yet they are unwilling to consider paying an additional 6 cents a month per subscriber for the right to carry our channels."
Eileen Hill, a faithful watcher of Comedy Central's Daily Show with Jon Stewart, was in no mood to laugh Tuesday morning when she called Dish Network to complain about the blackout.
"Since they denied access to the stations to me, I denied them access to my checking account to pay my bill each month electronically," said Hill, 56, of Holiday.
Viacom and Dish Network took their cases directly to consumers like Hill on Tuesday.
Monday evening, Viacom ran a scroll across the bottom of MTV and other company channels warning Dish Network subscribers of the impending blackout. A Viacom Web site, www.ilostmyfavoritechannels.com urged Dish subscribers to defect to satellite competitor DirecTV or a cable carrier.
"EchoStar/Dish Network has yanked your favorite channels," the Web site said. "You have just been left high and dry without SpongeBob," a Nickelodeon character popular with children.
Dish Network's Web site, www.dishnetwork.com provided phone numbers for Viacom and CBS and urged customers to call them with complaints. In the bay area, subscriber Hill said Dish Network channel 107 repeatedly played an explanatory interview with EchoStar CEO Charles Ergen.
If the dispute were resolved quickly, Hill added, she would keep her Dish Network subscription. "I've got this stupid (satellite) dish sitting on my roof right now."
Viacom and EchoStar began sparring after a contract for the Dish Network to broadcast Viacom channels expired Dec. 31. The contract was extended at least three times, voluntarily and by court orders. The latest court order for the programming to continue expired overnight Monday.
The dispute affects Dish Network CBS customers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Denver, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, Green Bay, Wis., and Austin, Texas. In these cities, the loss of the upcoming NCAA men's basketball tournament carried by CBS was of particular concern, especially to college basketball fans, sports bars and other businesses.
EchoStar said it would provide $1 monthly credits to customers who lost their MTV - or their MTV2, MTV Espanol, Black Entertainment Television, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Nick Games & Sports, Noggin, VH1, VH1 Classic, or CBS-HD East and West. Subscribers who also lost their local CBS affiliate would receive an additional $1 per month.
But spokesman Marc Lumpkin said customers who have a long-term contract with Dish Network can't use the Viacom blackout to get out of it without paying an early termination fee.
DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer said the company, a division of Hughes Electronics Corp., was "inundated with calls" Tuesday morning from angry Dish Network customers. He said it was too early to tell if DirecTV would experience a windfall.
JoAnn Carrin, spokeswoman for Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, encouraged Florida consumers to call the agency's hotline with any related complaints.
"If there was upfront notice that the channels could change, then it would be difficult to prove unfair and deceptive practices," she said. But if customers call, she added, "we can look into it and see the contracts and what was promised."
This isn't the first time bay area TV watchers were affected by a battle between television titans.
Early last year, cable television company Time Warner - now called Bright House Networks - stopped carrying the Sunshine Network, whose programming included Tampa Bay Lightning hockey and Orlando Magic basketball games. A DirecTV retailer in Melbourne tried to capitalize on the impasse with a TV ad aimed at disgruntled Time Warner subscribers.
According to a report by Skytrends.com, an estimated 1,167,600 Florida households subscribed to either DirecTV or Dish Network as of July 2003. Though neither company would divulge its Florida market share Tuesday, DirecTV claims about 12.2-million subscribers nationwide, and Dish Network about 9-million. Based on that ratio, Dish Network would have roughly 500,000 subscribers in Florida.
Rob Sanderson, an analyst with American Technology Research in San Francisco, said the dispute was bad news for both companies.
"EchoStar would rather not disrupt services to the number of people affected," he said. "On the Viacom side, their advertisers don't like to see them lose any potential eyeballs or reach for advertising."
Reaction to the contretemps was muted on Wall Street. EchoStar shares gained 10 cents to close at $34.28 while Viacom shares fell 36 cents to close at $39.22. Shares of Hughes Electronics, parent of Dish Network competitor DirecTV, fell 23 cents per share to close at $16.20.
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
