Viacom to Rebrand Spike TV as Paramount Network

[osu1991]

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/viacom-to-rebrand-spike-tv-paramount-television-1201981960/

Viacom will rebrand Spike TV as Paramount Network. Sources tell Variety that the move is part of a new company-wide strategy set to be unveiled by CEO Bob Bakish Thursday.

Speculation is also circulating that Bakish's new strategy may include a further alignment or even merger of MTV and VH1, both led by Chris McCarthy.


Bakish is likely to move to centralize many functions across networks and eventually prune some minor channels, such as MTV and Nickelodeon spinoffs, from the company's portfolio.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I hear tomorrow Viacom may announce they are only going to have 6 channels and may shut down the rest.


Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[Juan]

About time

Sent from my SM-G920V using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[Deadlocked]

I hear tomorrow Viacom may announce they are only going to have 6 channels and may shut down the rest.


Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!

PLEASE


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[osu1991]

I hear tomorrow Viacom may announce they are only going to have 6 channels and may shut down the rest.

Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!

I saw some hints of that this morning.

Viacom to Narrow Focus to Six Key Cable TV Channels

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/...arrow-focus-to-six-key-cable-tv-channels.html

Viacom, long the poster child of the supersize cable TV bundle, is planning to narrow its strategic focus to six key channel brands as it seeks to reset its frayed relationships with distribution partners, according to people familiar with the matter.


The list of winning brands -- Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., MTV, Comedy Central, BET and Spike -- is part of new Chief Executive Bob Bakish's turnaround plan for the struggling media giant. That plan was approved by the company's board on Monday and is expected to be unveiled during its discussion of quarterly earnings on Thursday, the people said.


Viacom has no immediate plans to shut down channels, the people said, but it will begin shifting content spending to the core brands -- at the expense of weaker ones like CMT and TV Land -- and lean more heavily on them to earn carriage fees. The list roughly mirrors the six core brands that Viacom focuses on in its international business, which Mr. Bakish ran for a decade before becoming Viacom's CEO late last year.

 

[Deadlocked]

BET
CMT
Comedy Central
Paramount
MTV
TV Land
Nickelodeon
Logo TV


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[dishrich]

I hear tomorrow Viacom may announce they are only going to have 6 channels and may shut down the rest.

BET
CMT
Comedy Central
Paramount
MTV
TV Land
Nickelodeon
Logo TV

This is 8 channels, but this list somewhat jives with this story in MCN...except all this story says is that Viacom is moving CMT & TV Land from it's Kids & Family Group, to it's Global Entertainment Group:

http://www.multichannel.com/news/networks/viacom-moves-cmt-tv-land-global-entertainment-group/410613

 

[KAB]

"There are risks to the strategy. It will only work if Viacom is able to persuade distributors to pay enough for an improved set of core networks to more than offset potential declines in fees for the smaller channels that are de-emphasized."

Yeh, good luck with that!

 

[Deadlocked]

This is 8 channels, but this list somewhat jives with this story in MCN...except all this story says is that Viacom is moving CMT & TV Land from it's Kids & Family Group, to it's Global Entertainment Group:

http://www.multichannel.com/news/networks/viacom-moves-cmt-tv-land-global-entertainment-group/410613

Oh I know but I couldn't find a way where any of those gets merged with another or dropped outside of Logo and that would be a very very very very bad look on Viacom.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[MikeD-C05]

After all the fights in the past over the carriage of these crappy Viacom channels , and all they have on them is reruns , infomercials and very , very little original content.


Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys mobile app

 

[ADJLATINO]

Funny cause was a speculation last year to launch a new channel with all oldies cartoon and series from nickelodeon ??

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

 

[JosephB]

Focusing on those 6 channels doesn't necessarily mean the others will get shut down. I would suspect that if they make money and stay on cable systems, they'll keep them going. Doesn't cost anything to program a playlist and fire all the staff.

Funny cause was a speculation last year to launch a new channel with all oldies cartoon and series from nickelodeon ??

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

They did that, kind of. The Splat is a "Nick at Nite" style programming block starting at 10PM on Teen Nick

 

[waylew]

They could turn them all off and I wouldn't notice.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I'm sure Charlie would be happy having to carry less garbage

 

[camo]

Little more on announced changes today. Stock is down 17% first quarter even though profit was up, so traders very skittish. They have maybe 2 watchable channel for adults and a bunch of garbage channels is the problem.
http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/viacom-paramount-cable-tv-turnaround-earnings-1201982633/

 

[MikeD-C05]

I'm sure Charlie would be happy having to carry less garbage

As long as he could continue to charge the same price as he does now ,even with less channels to watch.

 

[SamCdbs]

(Old guy mode on)

IMHO:

This bunch have killed more geese that layed if not golden, at least marketably bronze, eggs than anybody.

Spike, soon to be Paramount, was TNN, which existed when the best cable system had 20 channels. It served an actual niche of people. Country people. Both people in the country, and, yet more so, first generation city and suburban dwellers who still enjoyed country music and lifestyle. Threw away that for a "theme". At the end of the day "theme" means recent reruns and shows not good enough to be on OTA networks.

MTV, and CMT, and VH1, used to carry. Wait for it. Wait for it. MUSIC VIDEOS. Which meant their programming costs were very low. Now pointless reruns, dumb shows and far-left preaching.

TV Land used to show off-syndication reruns. Which, a lot of younger people were not alive to see. Low programming costs, reasonable ratings, and good ad sales. Nah. Lets make new shows.

 

[Tampa8]

(Old guy mode on)

IMHO:

.......TV Land used to show off-syndication reruns. Which, a lot of younger people were not alive to see. Low programming costs, reasonable ratings, and good ad sales. Nah. Lets make new shows.

I would disagree about TVLand. I think they made the correct decisions in having some newer programming, which btw doesn't do all that badly. Here's the reasons;
Antenna TV
Laff TV
MeTv
Decades
Grit Tv
And more. Those are free OTA in many markets that TVland would compete with. While they each do generally have exclusive rights for certain programming it changes from time to time so that you can probably see most of the shows on those stations overtime. I think TVLand and CMT do ok generally and may be why they are being put together in the Global group.

 

[mwdxer1]

Both Nick & TV Land used to be good channels for old TV shows. I never watch either these days. The diginet channels I like better. Too many junk channels on Dish, Direct, Cable. I am hoping Dish adds more diginet material. I enjoy those more than many other channels.

 

[Yespage]

I think Viacom needs to understand their content only has so much value and worry more about carriage at this point than money for carriage. Comedy Central has a few good shows and relies way too heavily on them, granted Comedy Central hasn't really ever been a great channel overall. Typically watch a show or two on it, but rarely turn there and expect to watch something out of the blue.

Nick Jr (if you have kids) is really their only very strong channel.