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By Keach Hagey and Shalini Ramachandran 

Viacom Inc.'s channels will remain on satellite-television provider Dish Network Corp.'s service after the companies agreed to a multiyear carriage contract.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, although the companies said the agreement would allow Dish subscribers to access Viacom content -- including Comedy Central and MTV -- on Dish's Sling TV streaming service.

The agreement comes as the traditional pay-tv business faces increasing pressures because of shrinking profits for distributors, rising costs of content and the proliferation of choices for consumers beyond the bundle.

In addition, Viacom -- which operates Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central, among other channels -- is viewed as especially vulnerable by some on Wall Street. The young audience for its channels has been the first to abandon or avoid signing up for expensive pay-TV packages in favor of cheaper, ad-free subscription services like Netflix or free, ad-supported streaming sites like YouTube and Snapchat.

The Dish agreement applies to 18 Viacom channels, including Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, Spike, BET, CMT, TV Land, Nick Jr. and Nicktoons.

Todd Juenger, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, has long argued Viacom is "uniquely vulnerable" to being the first place where major readjustments to the pay-TV bundle will be made. He became more convinced of that, he wrote this week, after reviewing the growing pressure on distributors' businesses as cord-cutting proliferates.

"If the current trajectories of ARPU [average revenue per user] and affiliate fees continue at current rates, the average [pay-tv distributor] would earn $0 on video subs by the year 2023," he wrote. "So obviously something has to change. We believe Viacom is the obvious place for [pay-tv distributors] to start."

Viacom's channel's ratings have fallen markedly since 2009, the last time it signed a distribution deal with Dish, said Rich Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG Research.

While the deal's financial terms weren't revealed, Viacom likely was under pressure not to accept a significantly lower rate, Mr. Greenfield said, because it has "most favored nation" clauses in its contracts with other big distributors like Comcast Corp. that would mean they had the right to those same low rates.

Wednesday, a Viacom spokesman said that so far this year, "our networks represent nearly one fifth of cable viewership on Dish, which gives Dish enormous incentive to renew our agreement."

Write to Keach Hagey at keach.hagey@wsj.com and Shalini Ramachandran at shalini.ramachandran@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications

An earlier headline to this story's summary on the wsj.com home page incorrectly said Viacom's channels had gone dark on Dish Network. Instead, the channels remained on the satellite-television provider as negotiations continued past the deadline.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 21, 2016 11:56 ET (15:56 GMT)

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