Watching MTV for New Years? You Might Have To Make Alternate After Party Plans

Cable companies negotiate contracts to carry the channels you see on your TV. That’s why not every satellite and cable lineup is exactly the same. And not all networks get the same deals. A lot depends on the size of the markets, relationships between the companies, etc.

Viacom – the owner of MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central has not come to a deal with Time Warner cable for the 2009 year. That means at the strike of midnight if you have Time Warner Cable (I’m looking at you NYC and LA), you will not be able to catch Bromance, The City, Best Week Ever, The Daily Show, or Dora the Explorer!

t turns out that Viacom has been trying to negotiate what it claims is a “fair” renewal of its prized cable channels for months and months, but reputedly Time Warner has been unresponsive and “unreasonable”. So now the fight between the two Big Media giants will hurt cable viewers. What the hell? At 12:01 AM on January 1st, just after the ball drops in Time Square, Time Warner Cable’s 13 million subscribers will lose 19 Viacom channels.