Liberty reshuffling channels, pulls plug on Viacom lineup
Liberty CEO Naji Khoury
Effective tomorrow, Liberty Puerto Rico will eliminate all of the Viacom channels in the Ultimate and Ultimate Plus video tiers after unfruitful negotiations with the provider, the local cable carrier said.
In an announcement late Friday, Liberty announced it will pull the plug on MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Spike, TV Land, CMT, Nick Jr., Nicktoons, VH1 Classic, MTV Tr3s, MTV Hits, MTV 2 and Nick 2, replacing them with AMC, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Fox College Sports, AXS TV, FX Movie Channel, WE tv, Sundance and IFC, in addition to PBS Kids, which is offered exclusively as part of an alliance with Sistema TV.
“Our negotiation with Viacom has unfortunately been unsuccessful,” said Naji Khoury, CEO of Liberty Puerto Rico. “Many of these channels have a minimal audience and altogether do not represent good value. These channels also offer their content on the Internet for free. We selected new channels that have content that responds to our customers’ requests.”
In addition to offering content, the new channels in Liberty’s lineup are growing in audience and are generating a great deal of buzz among the company’s customers.
But despite that, social media platforms were abuzz over the weekend, as Liberty customers expressed their discontent with the upcoming changes.
“The channels we are offering in place of Viacom’s are an excellent alternative and we are confident that viewers will enjoy them better,” said Gabriel Palerm, sales, marketing and media vice president of Liberty. “As a matter of fact, several of the channels that we are including in this lineup revision, were highly requested by our customers for quite some time.”
PBS Kids will be offered to all Liberty customers through an alliance with TV station Sistema TV of the Ana G. Méndez University System. This station will air on channel 67 in Liberty’s Ultimate tier and channel 267 in its HD lineup.
“This channel offers quality programming for children ages two to seven that is educational as it is entertaining,” said Margarita T. Millán, general manager of Sistema TV. With PBS Kids, our station and Liberty provide a good entertainment alternative to Puerto Rican children and their families.”
Liberty’s new lineup will be available on its webpage, www.libertypr.com, and can also be requested in print at any Liberty kiosk or store within its coverage areas. The interactive guide will be updated to reflect the changes.
Well, if I pay to watch Spongebob Squarepants, don’t make me laugh by asking me to pay to watch Arthur, when I can watch it for FREE on SITV or WIPR. Epic fail Liberty!
Exactly why do i ned to watch nickelodeon paying more money than i pay besides i was soppose to watch a movie on that channel but thanks to you guys “liberty” now i cant watch it.