Cablevision-Viacom bundling spat continues

Cablevision has accused Viacom of threatening to impose penalties in the region of US$1 billion-plus (€800 million) for licensing its core, rather than its entire suite, of channels.   

In legal documents, made public yesterday, the US cable operator said that Viacom “strong-armed Cablevision into carrying suite networks” by threatening to impose a “near US$X billion penalty” – though the precise figure is redacted.
Cablevision filed the case against Viacom in the US last month, claiming that the channel owner forces it to air less popular networks in order to carry the likes of Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central.

Viacom has defended its channel bundling practises and in a statement issued yesterday said: “This suit is nothing more than a hypocritical attempt by Cablevision to void a long term carriage deal they agreed to only two months ago.”