Looks like DTV is trying; they added a Disney Jr channel today; also did something with baseball. I'm liking Viacom less & less every day... On its own page, Viacom took a bit of a cheap shot Wednesday afternoon, posting an image of Nickelodeon cartoon favorite SpongeBob SquarePants with this text: "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? I don't know. I have DirecTV." DTV If this dispute were over pennies, it wouldnt be happening. We dont think a $1 billion bonus to buy channels whose ratings are faltering is any pittance. Contrary to what Viacom has been saying, they indeed have been at the center of many programming disputes in the past with Time Warner Cable, Brighthouse Networks, and DISH. Do these spots ring any bells? They sound familiar to us A lot has changed in the seven years since Viacom and DIRECTV last renewed their agreement. More than 5.2 million more families have come to DIRECTV, making it the most popular video provider in the Americas with 19.9 million homes in the U.S. alone. Ratings for many of Viacoms networks have plummeted and Viacom has shunned its pay television businesses to become one of the most prolific providers of free Internet video. Sanford Bernstein reports the one out of every five former Nickelodeon families are watching online. DIRECTV will always pay fair market value for any service, but when performance declines, youre not entitled to a huge raise. Just ask the families were trying to serve. DIRECTV will do what it takes to defend our customers when we believe programmers are trying to take advantage of them. Some channel owners feel theyre entitled to get exorbitant raises every year, even when the value of their programming doesnt warrant it. Whether its Viacom or anyone else, when they try to extract more money from their viewers without justification, they shouldnt be surprised when we push back.

Update. I thought I had this settled, but... After a couple of calls to our cable company (Charter), hinting that I would defect to satellite TV, and no offer of talking to a supervisor (and I did ask) I called a 3rd time. (I also made a post on their Facebook page) They put me in touch with the retention department right away. One of our major concerns is that we want to keep our multi-room DVR, rather than have 2 separate DVRs that we have to program. The system is working for us, and we would like to keep it as is. So the retention agent and I came to an agreement on price with us keeping the equipment that we have. The only thing that needed to change was our modem, which she said was outdated. I agreed with that, because we have had the modem for a long time. So today the technician came out to install the modem. The install went okay and he left. About 5 minutes later the tech knocked on the door. He said that he was unable to close out our job and get to his next job because he was supposed to install 2 new DVRs! I called the cable company, and they said that there was no way that we could have the pricing that we were offered with our current equipment. I asked for a supervisor who told me the same thing. After some back and forth I told her that she could figure something out and get back to me tomorrow. Meanwhile the poor tech is still waiting to get to his next appointment. The representative on the phone said that they had "cleared" our job and he could get on to the next, so I told him. Another 5 minutes later he was knocking on the door again. The job was not cleared, and he wanted me to talk to his boss. The tech's boss started to say that they needed to install the new equipment. I say, no - we are done now. At that point the tech wanted to come in and take out the new modem and give us back the old one. I said sorry, but nothing else is happening here today. I felt bad, because it wasn't his fault, but at that point I was DONE (or so I thought) About 10 minutes later the internet went out! I thought that they had cut us off, but after about an hour with a tech on the phone we got it working. I am so not looking forward to dealing with this tomorrow!

DO NOT go to Satellite internet! DO NOT DO IT! If you have any other choice for internet service, stay with that!! I have satellite internet through Dish Network, "powered by WildBlue" - It is better than dial-up, which is my only other option. It is SOMEWHAT faster, but not very fast. The big thing is the usage cap - you can only use so much internet time in a rolling 30 day period (watch that word rolling!) If you watch any videos, have more than one computer/iPad/etc. - you will quickly go over your usage cap. They will then throttle you down so hard that dialup looks blazingly fast. Forget the idea of streaming TV shows, skype, etc. No way!! Just basic Windows updates, etc. can put a major strain on the usage cap if you have the cheapest package. We have the middle package and have to really watch our usage. I usually go to the library to download any songs, etc. from iTunes. If you do more than just a small amount of internet surfing and email - you will have to get a larger internet package $$$ and you will still have usage cap issues. We are able to deal with it, as it is our only option - but if I had any other choice, I would go for it. I have had Dish Network TV satellite for 15 years - never had any trouble. Some weather related issues, but that is to be expected.

Thanks, Vee and everyone. It does seem as if te US is getting what was shown in the UK last year--logical, as it is based on the first book in the series. I'm not sure if HBO will immediately follow with the second set of episodes. The first book, as shown last year in the UK, is out on DVD, but only in the UK DVD format. I'll just have to wait. A further point. It sounds as if the TV version has added plot lines and characters not in the books. Not sure how that will work.