CBS Corp. split from Viacom on Jan. 1. On Jan. 20, it announced it's kicking Viacom's "Nick Jr." shows off CBS stations:
Link: Multichannel News.
That's just the beginning. John Higgins reports this week that CBS is going to start demanding cash payments from cable companies in exchange for carrying its affiliates. Until now, CBS stations had been used as leverage to increase the number of homes that carry Viacom's cable networks ... say, Nicktoons. Which means that the recent scenario of Echostar dumping Lifetime could be repeated again with certain Viacom channels. And Viacom has a lot more of those than Lifetime does.
The other night at the CBS Stars Party, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves graciously declared that he and Viacom "are very different businesses ... people compare BET to UPN but they're very different. There's nothing that they've got that I want ... May everybody live happily ever after and I have a lot of stock and I'm rooting for them. I really am. I really am."
He forgot to add: And I wish them luck with their high-profit-margin cable channels. I've done my last favor for them.
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