NEW YORK (Reuters) - Echostar Communications Corp. on Tuesday dropped local CBS stations from its satellite service in 16 cities and dropped MTV, Nickelodeon and other cable channels nationwide after contract talks with Viacom Inc. broke down.
The impasse left an estimated 1.6 million people without CBS network television in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Miami the week before the CBS broadcast of the NCAA basketball tournament. It leaves another 9.5 million nationwide without 10 Viacom channels.
Viacom said it was "dismayed and disappointed" by the action.
EchoStar said it would like to transmit CBS programing on its network again, and accused Viacom of "holding the public airways hostage."
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