Yesterday we reported that conglomerate Viacom was threatening to pull 19 channels from Time Warner systems if the cable company refused to give higher fees for use of the channels.
A few of the affected networks would have been powerhouses such as Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and Spike TV. In all, the 19 channels accounted for 25 percent of total cable network viewers at any given time.
The two companies have come to a resolution however: “We are pleased that our customers will continue to be able to watch the programming they enjoy on MTV Networks,” responded Glenn Britt, CEO of Time Warner Cable.“We are sorry they had to endure a day of public disagreement as we worked through this negotiation.”
Viacom had claimed that it’s “average daily license fee was 65 percent lower than that of networks run by The Walt Disney Co., News Corp.’s Fox, Time Warner Inc.’s Turner Broadcasting System and Discovery Communications Inc,” despite bringing in much more viewers.
Although terms of the deal were not disclosed it appears that every current Time Warner Cable subscriber will be expected to pay an extra 19-to-23 cents per month on top of their current bill, amounting to just under $3 USD a year.
Result for: mtv networks
In a decision that should come as no surprise to anyone, BitTorrent Inc. has shut down their struggling Torrent Entertainment Network paid download store.
Last month the company drastically reduced their staff by half and removed the CEO in favor of former CTO Eric Klinker.
BitTorrent vice president of marketing Simon Morris added that the company has been taking down the store since Nov. 17.
The store launched in February of last year and had content deals in place with 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., MTV Networks, and Paramount Pictures. Unfortunately for them, the customers just never came.
Result for: mtv networks
Confirming reports published yesterday, The Beatles, MTV and Harmonix have jointly announced that they will be collaborating on a “brand new videogame featuring the music of the iconic Beatles” and will be out in time for the holidays 2009.
Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos added the game will be a “new, full-blown custom game title production built from the ground up”. This won’t be a special one band branded game like Aerosmith had with Guitar Hero however, it will be a whole new game.
Jeff Jones, CEO of Apple Corps, noted that the catalog would include songs from the entire run of The Beatles. It also appears the game will work with peripherals from Rock Band as well as Guitar Hero.
“We want to take players on an experiential journey through the band’s history,” he said. “A visual exploration of the Beatles’ imagery is a big part of this project,” Rigopulos said. “With apologies…there’s very little that we’re ready to say about the game itself.”
MTV Networks president Van Toffler added, “We’re going to provide the ultimate platform for new generations of fans to start their own love affair with the Beatles”. Van Toffler also noted that the song of George Martin, Giles Martin, would be doing music production for the game.
“The thing that we’re trying to keep to is for people to play the songs as though they’re playing the originals. So we will be adhering to the original mixes my father and the Beatles did, and trying to preserve the sound quality as much as possible,” said Martin.
