Washington, D.C. (July 12, 2012) -- DIRECTV CEO Mike White yesterday said his satellite TV service is continuing to negotiate with Viacom to carry its 26 channels, but the two sides remain "pretty far apart."

That's according to an article by Bloomberg News.

DIRECTV was forced Tuesday night to remove 26 Viacom channels when the two companies could not reach a new programming pact. The channels affected include: all MTV channels, Comedy Central, all Nickelodeon channels, BET, Spike, VH1, TVLand, Logo, CMT and Palladia.

Speaking yesterday at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, White said "We're happy to do a fair deal...We're talking."

DIRECTV claims Viacom is demanding a fee increase of more than 30 percent, which would force it to pay more than $1 billion in additional fees over the next five years. Viacom, however, says it's only asking for what other TV providers have already agreed to pay.

In related news yesterday:

*DIRECTV sought to soothe upset subscribers by making eight Encore movie channels available for free until July 31.

* Viacom pulled free episodes of some shows such as Comedy Central's The Daily Show from its web sites for all consumers, not just DIRECTV subs. The company was reacting to DIRECTV's suggestion that subscribers upset over losing channels such as Comedy Central simply watch the shows for free at Viacom's web sites. (Viacom programming is still available on Netflix, Hulu and other online services.)

* Cox Communications came to DIRECTV's defense, saying that programmers today are asking for too much money to carry their channels.

“This is a reflection of an unbalanced multichannel video business model that has two major effects: continued significant increases in the cost of programming that are the main driver of rising cable and satellite TV service bills, and wide disparities between what large and small distributors pay for programming, resulting in similar disparities in what respective customers pay for service," Cox said in a statement released Wednesday.

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