Viacom Inc (VIAB.O) and Charter Communications Inc (CHTR.O) agreed on a short-term extension of their renewal deadline, a source familiar with the matter said, as the companies aim to avoid the immediate blackout of Viacom networks.
(Reuters) – Viacom Inc (VIAB.O) and Charter Communications Inc (CHTR.O) agreed on a short-term extension of their renewal deadline, a source familiar with the matter said, as the companies aim to avoid the immediate blackout of Viacom networks.
If no deal is reached, 16.6 million subscribers of Charter&rsquo-s Spectrum service will lose Viacom&rsquo-s networks, which include Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon.
Viacom and Charter are working to &ldquo-reach a mutually beneficial deal,&rdquo- said the source, who did not want to be identified.
Viacom stands to lose $760 million, or about 16 percent, of its annual affiliate revenue if an agreement is not reached, according to an analyst at Gabelli & Co, Viacom&rsquo-s second-largest voting shareholder.
Both sides are under pressure from cord-cutting, or dropping of pay television, as audiences flock to cheaper streaming services that have emerged in the past decade.
An agreement between the two companies would be &ldquo-mutually beneficial,&rdquo- wrote Evercore ISI in an note Sunday.
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