Viacom’s carriage deal with Dish Network is scheduled to expire on Wednesday and no agreement is in sight, a Viacom spokesman told Reuters on Tuesday.
“We are extremely disappointed that DISH has not engaged in a serious way to reach an agreement,” the company said in a statement. Dish did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
The companies have been in talks for several months. On Tuesday, Viacom started running a crawl across the screen on all of its networks alerting Dish customers of a possible blackout.
Viacom shares were down 6.5% at $36.32 on Nasdaq, while Dish shares rose 1.5% to $47.19.
On March 7, Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman said he expected to renew the contract with Dish Network in the next quarter.
Dauman said during Viacom’s last quarterly earnings call that the New York-based media company had entered into a short-term extension of its distribution agreement with Dish.
