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Suddenlink's Jerry Kent: Dropping Viacom 'The Right Decision'

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Suddenlink Communications chairman and CEO Jerry Kent told analysts Monday that the small market cable operator’s decision to replace Viacom’s networks with other, supposedly less-popular fare has been the right one both financially and from a customer standpoint.

In a conference call to discuss second quarter results, Kent said that the decision to replace Viacom’s 24 networks like MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, with the likes of Revolt TV, Comedy.TV and Sprout, has been the right one.

“The bulk of the headwinds are behind us,” Kent said on the call, adding that the decision not to carry the Viacom networks has ahad a “minimal lasting impact on the connect side of the business.”

Suddenlink dropped the Viacom channels on Sept. 30 after the two parties could not reach a carriage renewal agreement. Suddenlink has said Viacom was demanding exorbitant price increases, while Viacom countered that it was only seeking fair value for its content.
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http://www.multichannel.com/news/cable-operators/kent-dropping-viacom-right-decision/392696
 
He's doing it at a low point in Viacom's history. The Comedy Channel is changing hosts for its most popular shows, MTV is hardly the must-have channel it was ten or twenty years ago, and TV Land is also going through a rebuild. As the OP points out, there are cheaper alternatives, and Viacom knows that if it wants to command top value, it needs to improve its content. This is a wake-up call, although I think the real wake-up happened a few months ago. That's why they've cleaned house at the top. They need fresh ideas and new shows that will get people talking. That may bring cable companies back. But at the same time, content providers are also taking their channels directly to the public online. So it's an ongoing story.
 
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