Media

Viacom blocks Cable One users from service

Sumner Redstone’s Viacom has gone nuclear.

Locked in a carriage-fee battle with Phoenix-based cable operator Cable One, the giant programmer has blocked customers of the pay-TV company from accessing its shows from its website.

It’s a move rarely taken by programmers — locking out cable customers from watching its shows, which in this case include Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

Cable One, whose nearly 1 million subscribers are in mostly rural America, and Viacom saw their carriage deal expire March 31.

Cable One yanked Viacom programming April 1 and Viacom responded this week by blocking Web access for those with a Cable One IP address.

The blockade sent subscribers into a tizzy on Twitter. “Are you kidding me? I can’t watch various MTV shows on my TV because of @Cableone now I can’t even stream it online?!” wrote one customer.

Employing a tactic used often by programmers in carriage disputes, Viacom on its website is telling Cable One subscribers they may wish to switch to Dish Network or try and ask for a refund.

Viacom is only the third programmer in as many years to block online content. CBS yanked access to its shows in the midst of a dispute with Time Warner Cable last summer. Fox also pulled access to Hulu shows from

Cablevision customers in a fee dispute in 2010.

The media giant contends its fee-increase request, in light of its ratings, pales in comparison to what the sports-content players are demanding.

“Cable One has chosen to no longer carry Viacom programming and, as a result, it is no longer available to Cable One customers in any form,” a Viacom spokeswoman said.

Cable One did not respond to several requests for comment.

John Bergmayer, a lawyer for Public Knowledge, a Washington, DC-based advocate for an open Internet, took a dim view of the situation, noting: “When you have these disputes, it’s not consumer-friendly to rope in broadband — it should be a separate thing.”