Dish to Keep Viacom Channels in Multiyear Deal

Dish will continue to provide Viacom channels to its pay-TV customers for several years, after the two companies reached a deal over fees Thursday.

They didn’t disclose financial terms. After talks broke down earlier this week, Viacom said that the satellite provider was making “impossible” demands, while Dish claimed that Viacom was asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in increases despite lower viewership and the fact that free content is more widely available now.

But announcing an accord Thursday, top executives at each company offered chummy praise of the other.

Also Read: Dish's Viacom Channels Still Alive as Talks Stretch Past Deadline

“We appreciate Viacom’s willingness to continue with us on our journey as we work to deliver the best, most innovative television services available,” Dish CEO Charlie Ergen said in a statement.

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said, “Dish has historically been and remains an important partner.”

The multiyear renewal means Dish’s pay-TV customers will have no interruption in their access to Viacom channels, which include Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, Spike, BET, CMT, TV Land, Nick Jr. and Nicktoons.

Also Read: Viacom Stands to Lose More in Dish Fight, Analysts Say

In a new measure, some Viacom live television and on-demand content will join Dish’s Sling TV, an Internet-based television service that offers no-commitment, “skinny” bundles of channels starting at $20 a month.

The two companies were fighting over carriage fees, which are payments that a distributor like Dish makes to a programmer like Viacom so that subscribers can watch those channels.

It’s routine for providers and content companies to hash out new terms for these deals whenever current agreements are due to expire. Sometimes, if talks are strained and the companies don’t reach a compromise by the time a current agreement runs out, channels “go dark” for the pay-TV provider’s customers.

Also Read: Dish Network Loses 23,000 Net Pay-TV Subscribers - But Crushes Q1 Earnings Mark

These blackouts are typically short-lived, used as a tactic by one side to spur the other to make a deal. But sometimes, such as the case of small cable provider Suddenlink, the distributor simply drops networks like Viacom’s.

A permanent schism between Dish and Viacom would have been the most significant divorce of its kind. Never before has a pay-TV company as large as Dish or a programmer as large as Viacom walked away from the other.

10 'Game of Thrones' Characters Most and Least Likely to Die, According to Science (Photos)

So, did Jon Snow really die in "Game of Thrones" season finale? Did Sansa survive her leap from Winterfell's wall? Before Sunday's return of the series starts unraveling those mysteries, researchers at a German university say their algorithm knows the answers. A student team at the Technical University of Munich analyzed data on all the "Game of Thrones" characters and built a machine-learning program that gives each one a percentage chance of survival or doom. Who is the most and least likely to die next?
HBO
This boy king is virtually dead already. Tommen Baratheon has a 97 percent likelihood of dying, according to the algorithm. Considering his grandfather, father, older brother and sister have all been murdered, and basically every person with any power in Westeros is vying to steal his seat on the Iron Throne, this doom may not be the biggest surprise.

Also Read: ‘Game of Thrones': Most Upsetting, Shocking and Disturbing Deaths So Far (Photos)
HBO
Tommen's uncle, Stannis, is a close runner-up in the algorithm's ranking of who's next to die. He has a 96 percent chance of being offed. Of course, our last glimpse of Stannis was of him lying defenseless on the ground as Brienne of Tarth swung her sword at him for the kill, so...

Also Read: All 47 ‘Game of Thrones’ Main Characters, Ranked Worst to Best (Photos)
HBO
It doesn't look good for fan favorite Khaleesi. Daenerys Targaryen has a 95 percent of dying, putting her at No. 3 in the close race to the grave.
HBO
Davos Seaworth, Stannis Baratheon's once right-hand deputy, has a 91 percent chance of doom. After barely surviving the battle at King's Landing in Season 2, this Onion Knight may not have long left.
HBO
Petyr Baelish's cunning vaulted him to money and power, and it's saved him from more than one dire scrape. But he has a 91 percent likelihood of dying, according to the algorithm, so his wiles may not get him much farther.
HBO
Among those most likely to survive, Roose Bolton is No. 5 on the "might just make it" list. And even though he makes it into that elusive top 5, he still has a 28 percent likelihood of dying.
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Margaery Tyrell's fate is rosier than her young husband, Tommen, at a 64 percent likelihood of dying. Her father, though, has the best chances in the Tyrell family, at only 18 percent doomed.
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Most people love to hate Cersei Lannister, but her conniving ways earn her a solid chance of surviving. She is only 16 percent likely to die, putting her at No. 3 on the list of survivors.
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Bless the all-knowing algorithm! Jon Snow is alive! At least, there's only an 11 percent chance that the Night's Watch mutiny that left him bleeding in the snow actually killed him. Only one other character has a better likelihood of survival.
HBO
Place your bets now. Although she jumped from the heights of Winterfell's high wall in the finale of the last season, machine learning assures us Sansa is the most likely character of all to survive the "Song of Ice and Fire." She her likelihood of death is only 3 percent.
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Is Jon Snow dead or alive? A machine-learning algorithm pegs the percentage chance of every ”Game of Thrones“ character surviving or perishing

So, did Jon Snow really die in "Game of Thrones" season finale? Did Sansa survive her leap from Winterfell's wall? Before Sunday's return of the series starts unraveling those mysteries, researchers at a German university say their algorithm knows the answers. A student team at the Technical University of Munich analyzed data on all the "Game of Thrones" characters and built a machine-learning program that gives each one a percentage chance of survival or doom. Who is the most and least likely to die next?

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10 'Game of Thrones' Characters Most and Least Likely to Die, According to Science (Photos)

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