Spectrum Customers May Lose Popular Channels

(RTTNews) - Spectrum cable customers will be able to watch MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and several other Viacom TV channels for a "short-term" as of now.

Viacom Inc. and Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum, have agreed to a short-term extension of contract as both the companies continue with contract negotiations, according to a report on Variety.

"Viacom has agreed to a short term extension of our renewal deadline with Charter while we work to reach a mutually beneficial deal," the source told Variety.

Viacom had been running advertisements during the weekend on the channels warning subscribers that all Viacom channels would be dropped and asked them to call Spectrum and complain.

Spectrum and Viacom agreement had a deadline of Sunday October 15 at 7 p.m.

On Twitter, the Spectrum customer support account "Ask_Spectrum" tweeted, "Our negotiations with Viacom are about one thing-- reaching an agreement that's fair to our customers."

Recently, Charter had raised complaints saying that Viacom had been overpaid for their channels over the recent years and Charter's business is suffering due to that and they are trying to boost their bottom line at the expense of customers.

Meanwhile, Viacom claims that they are not asking for an increase in carriage fees from Spectrum and have also offered a discounted rate to the cable giant.

"Viacom has made a series of very attractive offers to Charter that are consistent with terms we've recently reached with other large cable operators. Importantly, these offers would enable Charter to lower Spectrum subscribers' bills, while also giving them more access to shows across Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and other Viacom networks," Viacom said in a statement last week.