Difficulty of Watching Viacom

With what the late Sumner Redstone was able to do, he made a lot of success. CBS, Paramount, and of course, Viacom. It resulted in TV shows being number one, more than its share of movies driving the box office. But when I look at Viacom, I look at a conglomerate that outside of CBS, is more of a greedier and lazier side to it. It makes as the title of the blog says, difficulty in watching these channels.

One example is the many, many commercials that are aired on their channels. Back in 2016, MTV had an airing of the first Jackass movie. In one half hour span, there were 15 minutes of commercials. They expand movies time slots on a lot of their channels to encompass more commercials. It's dumb, but it still exists. I remember ten years ago when Comedy Central had messed up time slots to get an extra minute or two of ads in their programs. This kind of stuff, Viacom or not, is why people cut the cord. Better off with a DVD or Blu-Ray of these films.

Two is the repetitive programs. Most of them are big offenders. MTV being the worst when they do 40 plus straight hours of Ridiculousness. Constant reruns of The Office and South Park on Comedy Central. Fresh Prince and Martin on VH1 and BET.  Movie wise, anything Adam Sandler. Titanic, Shrek, Bad Boys 1 and 2, Creed, Obsessed. Big offenders being Shrek and the Bad Boys films. You know they will be on almost every week. Sometimes, on multiple channels in the same week. I remember back in 2013 CMT airing Mrs. Doubtfire almost every week that year. It's a good movie, but every week good? I think not. But that's child play compared to where we are seven years later.  But the point being is the constant need to use the same material every day. If it's their way of fighting the streaming binge, eventually it will fail or people get tired of these films and shows and get something else.

Lastly is the stance on YouTube. It's not exclusive to Viacom and I understand the issues pertaining to it. They have to preserve their properties and make sure no one is soliciting videos they don't own. It's more of a TV problem regarding programs they completely own. There are many that don't have a release on DVD or are incomplete with later seasons not on disc format. Many will go to YouTube to find episodes since it is next to impossible to find ones for shows that haven't aired in a long time or have a version that was uncut or uncensored. Instead of embracing it, Viacom has always been more of a dick with it. They've been better as time has gone on with having YouTube channels of their own. They do garner attention. However, it's still a far cry from what other conglomerates have. They shouldn't be afraid to have more content from their old days and charge a decent amount for a season of a show that hasn't aired in a long time.

Viacom has a lot of good, but the cable world is a lot of bad. Maybe things could change with a different person in charge, even if it's Redstone's daughter. Television is in a tough spot. It might take a while before people get an idea of how all the channels they have could change or stay the same.