Viacom pulled its channels from Sony’s PlayStation Vue and shortly after that it pulled its shows from Hulu. Now Viacom has refused to give its shows to new streaming services such as YouTube TV and Hulu.
For now you can still find Viacom channels, such as Comedy Central, Spike, and MTV, on Sling TV and DIRECTV NOW. Likely because of the ability for its parent companies to tie being on its streaming service as a requirement to be on its traditional pay-TV services.
Though it seems as if Viacom is not happy about these deals and just last week made it clear it has no future plans to be a part of cheaper cord cutting services. During the first quarter earnings call for Viacom its CEO Bob Bakish said, “we have to be careful we’re not creating inexpensive opportunities to serve as an alternative.”
Just a few months before that Viacom made it clear it plans to do what it can to promote traditional pay-TV services.
With over 750,000 American households ditching pay TV in just the first quarter of 2017, it seems that Viacom is rushing back on the sinking ship. So desperate is it to hold on to the big payouts of pay TV it is unwilling to try and make something from cord cutters.
Like a long list of companies before it, Viacom is so tied to what it did in the past it is unwilling to change. Much like how Blockbuster was so tied to the easy money of DVD rentals it ignored what was happening until it was too late to make any changes.
Although it’s far too early to say Viacom is the next Blockbuster, it does seem that it is moving in that direction.
So what do you think? Is Viacom the next Blockbuster?
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