Snippet: Viacom Bets on the Wrong Horse ☇

Luke Bouma for Cord Cutters News:

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.”

We’re moving to a world where eyeballs on content is the most important thing, regardless of where it came from and how it was delivered. Although skinny bundles and over-the-top services are still a repackaging of the “old model” of pay TV, actively avoiding these really feels like a dumb move for Viacom. I’m with others in the comments for the original post, that there’s only a few specific things I watch across these networks. If Viacom went away tomorrow or pulled the channels, I don’t think I’d be too upset. That should terrify Viacom.