Say Goodbye to CBS & Showtime on June 30th?

Interesting article.

Since AT&T announced it's intention over a year ago to purchase DirecTV, what new channels have been added to U-verse>

If AT&T were to lose channels, shouldn't they be mentioned?

http://programmingchanges.att.com/

http://uversechannels.att.com/national-legal-description

I don't see anything listed at those sites. I *do* see stuff listed for previous months that is no longer listed in May.

Either I'm missing something, or lets see what happens on or about next Tuesday when the June notifications come out.

Here's the article from WSJ:

While AT&T Inc. waits to close its acquisition of satellite-television operator DirecTV, AT&T’s own pay-TV unit has some unfinished business with CBS Corp.
AT&T’s U-Verse programming agreement for CBS and its cable channels, including Showtime, runs out June 30.

Setting the stage for a likely contract dispute, CBS is frustrated at what it sees as lack of interest from AT&T to move discussions past a preliminary stage and expects customers will lose access to its channels, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking.

The bigger concern at CBS, however, is the future of U-Verse after AT&T closes its $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV, the people said. When AT&T unveiled its plans to acquire DirecTV, one of the reasons it cited was the ability to use the satellite broadcaster’s heft to lower the combined company’s programming costs. DirecTV has more than 20 million subscribers and U-Verse has six million.

AT&T has been aiming to close its DirecTV deal by the end of June. At the time the merger was announced, the industry wondered whether AT&T would shut U-Verse and try to move its subscribers to the DirecTV platform.

A person close to AT&T said that the two sides are “knee deep” in negotiations with CBS, and an agreement is expected to be reached before the end of the month. To be sure, negotiations between distributors and programmers often don’t heat up until a contract is on the verge of expiration, and griping about the pace of the talks is often seen as part of the game.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/cbs-contract-deadline-with-at-t-approaches-1433792063

They did provide notice back in April.  However, when they didn't repeat that notice in May, I thought it had been resolved.  Guess not.

Its possible but doubtful, Directv doesnt have the transponders to support all the HD channels U-Verse currently has that Directv doesnt.

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@JefferMC wrote:

They did provide notice back in April.  However, when they didn't repeat that notice in May, I thought it had been resolved.  Guess not.

 

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Good point. I remember a similar incident happening 2-5 months ago with another set of channels.

AT&T really needs to repeat things so that their customers aren't mislead.

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@SportsFan1972 wrote:
But If the merger closes and U-Verse is NOT shut down, does this mean that if the DirecTV team is controlling negotiations that we would start getting channels that are currently available on DirecTV but not UVerse, like Hallmark and likewise, DirecTV would start getting Uverse channels that it currently does not have?

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I think someone said that the channels would not merge. If they were to merge, it would most likely be several years. When SiriusXM announced their merger, the year was 2007 or 2008. Over the past year or so, they recently merged their billing.

Bottom line -- Don't expect this to happen "overnight."

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@baseballisback wrote:

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@JefferMC wrote:

They did provide notice back in April.  However, when they didn't repeat that notice in May, I thought it had been resolved.  Guess not.

 

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Good point. I remember a similar incident happening 2-5 months ago with another set of channels.

 

AT&T really needs to repeat things so that their customers aren't mislead.

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It's all listed here:  http://www.att.com/Common/iptv/files/programming/index.html

Actually going back to the March listing, at least for MI.

Chris
__________________________________________________________

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
Need Help? PM ATT Uverse Care (all service problems)
ATT Customer Care(all other problems)
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

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@mibrnsurg wrote:

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@baseballisback wrote:

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@JefferMC wrote:

They did provide notice back in April.  However, when they didn't repeat that notice in May, I thought it had been resolved.  Guess not.

 

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Good point. I remember a similar incident happening 2-5 months ago with another set of channels.

 

AT&T really needs to repeat things so that their customers aren't mislead.

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It's all listed here:  http://www.att.com/Common/iptv/files/programming/index.html

 

Actually going back to the March listing, at least for MI.

 

Chris
__________________________________________________________

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
Need Help? PM ATT Uverse Care (all service problems)
ATT Customer Care(all other problems)
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

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No.

What I'm saying is that if something is still up for negotiation, it's not repeated the next month. Take the Showtime stuff for example. Because it still appears that those channels are up for negotiation, why are they not listed in May? They should be. Because they're not listed in May, people like me think: "Oh, AT&T and Showtime must be friends again."

And that appears to not be the case.

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@baseballisback wrote:

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@mibrnsurg wrote:

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@baseballisback wrote:

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@JefferMC wrote:

They did provide notice back in April.  However, when they didn't repeat that notice in May, I thought it had been resolved.  Guess not.

 

---

 

 

Good point. I remember a similar incident happening 2-5 months ago with another set of channels.

 

AT&T really needs to repeat things so that their customers aren't mislead.

---

It's all listed here:  http://www.att.com/Common/iptv/files/programming/index.html

 

Actually going back to the March listing, at least for MI.

 

Chris

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No.

 

What I'm saying is that if something is still up for negotiation, it's not repeated the next month. Take the Showtime stuff for example. Because it still appears that those channels are up for negotiation, why are they not listed in May? They should be. Because they're not listed in May, people like me think: "Oh, AT&T and Showtime must be friends again."

 

And that appears to not be the case.

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They never repeated anything even if it's still in/out of negotiation and never mention anything during negotiation, unlike CBS that's blabbing all over the place.

Chris
__________________________________________________________

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
Need Help? PM ATT Uverse Care (all service problems)
ATT Customer Care(all other problems)
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

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@mibrnsurg wrote:

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@baseballisback wrote:

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@mibrnsurg wrote:

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@baseballisback wrote:

---

@JefferMC wrote:

They did provide notice back in April.  However, when they didn't repeat that notice in May, I thought it had been resolved.  Guess not.

 

---

 

 

Good point. I remember a similar incident happening 2-5 months ago with another set of channels.

 

AT&T really needs to repeat things so that their customers aren't mislead.

---

It's all listed here:  http://www.att.com/Common/iptv/files/programming/index.html

 

Actually going back to the March listing, at least for MI.

 

Chris

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No.

 

What I'm saying is that if something is still up for negotiation, it's not repeated the next month. Take the Showtime stuff for example. Because it still appears that those channels are up for negotiation, why are they not listed in May? They should be. Because they're not listed in May, people like me think: "Oh, AT&T and Showtime must be friends again."

 

And that appears to not be the case.

---

They never repeated anything even if it's still in/out of negotiation and never mention anything during negotiation, unlike CBS that's blabbing all over the place.

 

Chris
__________________________________________________________

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
Need Help? PM ATT Uverse Care (all service problems)
ATT Customer Care(all other problems)
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

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IMO, they should repeat it. Like I said, if they don't, it's too easy to think something has been settled...but I can see why they don't because the customers will realize they're close to the deadline and panic and switch...which is exactly what Fox, CBS and others want and why they blabble on. "Oh no! You could lose these channels! Switch now and don't miss a single minute (except for when you're switching and your install guy screws up and you need a second and third tech to fix the mistakes of the first and second guy.)

Lots of interesting info here, especially on what the U-Verse landscape will be if the merger happens.

I have always been curious what AT&T wanted out of U-Verse.  I have heard since 2008, that if the right offer came along that UV would be for sale and that both Comcast and Verizon would be potential buyers.  With cable cutting and differing delivery options, wonder if AT&T might be interested?