It also is running a crawl on its channels on the bottom of the screen of DirecTV subscribers and has launched a website called http://www.keepviacom.com/. The telecom giant was "disappointed" that Viacom chose to put DirecTV customers in the middle of negotiations. "Viacom’s channels in total have lost about 40% of their audience in the past six years. As Variety notes, if Viacom significantly cuts the retransmission fees that it charges DirecTV, other pay-TV providers would demand similar treatment. Customer defections will increase if the DirecTV can't offer Viacom's channels.

Source: Forbes March 19, 2019 23:52 UTC