Cable television company Cablevision and mass media firm Viacom have confirmed that they have settled a long-running lawsuit.
On Friday, Oct. 16, the two companies jointly confirmed the settlement of the antitrust lawsuit and also announced that they were entering into a mutually beneficial arrangement that will help both Cablevision and Viacom.
"We are pleased to have put these matters behind us in ways that benefit both of our companies and look forward to working together to benefit Cablevision's customers," per a joint statement issued by Cablevision and Viacom.
The companies did not disclose any details of the settlement.
In 2013 Cablevision filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in New York, just a few months after the two companies confirmed a distribution agreement for the Viacom channels.
The lawsuit alleged that Viacom forced Cablevision to transmit more than 12 weak channels so that the cable television company could carry some of Viacom's key channels including Comedy Central, VH1, MTV and Nickelodeon.
Many programmers including NBC Universal, Walt Disney and Viacom price their channel packages in such a way that makes distributors to transmit all channels offered by them.
However, many cable companies do not want to offer all channels because it may get too expensive to transmit the key channels only than to carry the complete bundle that also includes weak channels.
Some pay television companies including Viacom have also been altering their packages and offering small bundles that encourage viewers to subscribe to their bundles. However, Viacom's stock had been adversely affected this year for offering small bundles.
Altice, a French telecommunication company, is also in the process of acquiring Cablevision for $17 billion, which may be a factor that had tempted the settlement with Viacom.
The settlement does not come as a surprise as rumors of such between Cablevision and Viacom had been surfacing since September this year.
