If you haven’t been paying attention to your TV lately (and judging from Viacom’s ratings, you probably haven’t), Time-Warner Cable and Viacom are at an impasse over the amount Viacom wants to charge TWC for its networks (including Comedy Central, Spike, the MTVs, the VH1s, Nickelodeon, Noggin, etc.) There’s a long article here with hundreds of comments from people talking about it.
The issue appears to be that Viacom wants an additional $0.25 per customer, for all of TWC’s customers. TWC’s contention is that this is a huge increase from what they pay now, that they’ll have to pass that cost along to the consumers, and that it’ll open the door for other content providers to jack up their rates and hold TWC to the fire.
Screw Viacom. Seriously? You’ve dumbed down MTV to the point of being not fit to sit my pets in front of when I go out for the day, and you want to charge more for it? How many “I Love the 80s” reruns does VH1 have to run before it suddenly spawns “value”? And don’t get me started on the crap you’re filling kids heads with on Nick and Noggin.
Turn those channels off, TWC. Seriously. I just don’t care. Make my bill go DOWN by cutting them off completely.
The most annoying people who commented in that post I linked to are the mothers who are like (and this is a direct quote here) …
Why in hell would they do this? They took a way all of the channels that kids watch on tv. When they don’t have school and are home all day in bad weather what are they supposed to watch? With no Nickelodeon or Noggin. This is crap and people need to leave Time Warner Cable.
Here’s an idea, lady, give your kids a fucking board-game. Give your kids some projects to do, outdoors. Help them build a friggin’ tree-fort. Whatever kids did for the four-thousand-fucking-years before cable TV showed up at your ignorant living room.
I have a 4 yaer old who is going to freak if she can’t watch Noggin for her alotted time each day.
Again.. why not teach your child not to rely on the idiot-box for her entertainment. Perhaps your 4 year old would love to do something else, if anyone in your house had enough imagination to suggest something different for her to do.
my 2yr old will be beside himself without his buddies on Noggin!
Maybe your kid needs real live friends instead of animated images?
Oh, my kingdom for a la carte cable. I’d just pay for the dozen or so channels I actually watch (we’d pay more for them, certainly, but at the end of the day, the net on the bill would surely go down)… but of course the cable companies have been fighting that for ages….
Derek's Rantings and Ravings 3.0 
Some good points here Dredd, although a bit harsh. I am not a big supporter of the cable conglomerates and their policies, but currently have very little choice in the matter. I always encourage good old fashioned activities such as reading and board games and playing outdoors in tree houses with actual human beings.
But, maybe you do not have kids. Sometimes, an hour of Noggin at the end of the workday is just the thing when you get home from work and are trying to clean your place up, make dinner for hungry mouths and do other necessary things adults must do to run their lives.
I don’t plop my kids in front of the TV all day, and I don’t watch MTV, VH1, or Spike. We lived for years without cable, but Noggin is a great channel and I would pay for it if that were the only choice, I would be all for a la carte cable.
You have some strong arguments here, but you loose credibility with the bitterness and cussing.
You don’t seriously think twc will lower your bill if those channels get cut do you? No of course you don’t you’ll pay the same for less.
Personally, I find the xbox an excellent substitute 🙂