Viacom threatening to pull its channels from Virgin Media in Carriage fee dispute

Viacom, which owns Channel 5, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and VH-1 were threatened with a blackout on Virgin Media over the weekend, due to a carriage fee dispute

An on-screen messages appearing to Virgin Media UK customers on numerous channels overnight said the channels were due to be axed at midnight on 31st August 2019.

Channel 5 itself will not be affected, as a commercial public service channel

Channels affected and under threat of removal from Virgin Media are :

5 USA
5 Star
5 Spike
5 Select
Nick
Nick Jr.
Nick Jr. Too
Nicktoons
Comedy Central
Comedy Central Extra
MTV
MTV Music
MTV Rocks
MTV Base
MTV Hits
Club MTV
MTV OMG!
VH-1
Paramount
BET

On a webpage, since removed, Viacom accused Virgin of not offering a fair deal and confirmed it had not asked Virgin for an increase in the fees it receives for its channels.

A Virgin spokesperson was able to confirm that the channels would be remaining on air on Virgin Media, with “constructive” discussions with Viacom continuing.

A similar carriage dispute last year saw the UKTV Group of channels, including Dave, withdrawn from Virgin Media for a few weeks.

This may also affect any IPTV services that use Virgin Media as a source for their streams…