Are you a DirecTV subscriber?

Then you probably had a very rude awakening this morning when you turned on the tube and realized that the cable provider had yanked MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, and several other channels from its lineup!

It’s all because of a dispute between DirecTV and Viacom.

Basically, Viacom wants to charge DirecTV more for broadcasting its networks. Viacom claims it will only cost consumers a few pennies more per month, but DirecTV says the proposed deal amounts to a 30 percent increase.

There’s no word on when everything will be settled, so we could be without some of our favorite channels for quite awhile!

The blackout is affecting roughly 20 million households, which is about one-fifth of all cable subscribers in the United States.

Now, it’s bad enough not being able to watch our nightly reruns of Friends, but try explaining this concept to a toddler.

That’s what Carson’s girlfriend Siri had to do with their 3-year-old son. Carson knew there would be mayhem, so he decided to call them up this morning and see how things were going!

[Source: New York Times]

-Sarah Carroll, 97.1 AMP Radio, Los Angeles