Satellite television provider DirecTV and media conglomerate Viacom have reportedly settled their recent dispute, meaning that Viacom-owned cable channels are now once again available to DirecTV subscribers.
The aforementioned dispute began after the sides could not come to a consensus on how much DirecTV should pay for a group of Viacom-owned channels owned channels. When the satellite provider's rights to broadcast the channels expired without a new agreement in place, the blackout took effect for approximately 20 million DirecTV subscribers.
The development likely comes as welcome news for MMA fans, as the settlement was made public mere hours before Bellator 72 is to be broadcast live on MTV2. The ramifications of the blackout in the MMA community turned out to be minimal, since Spike TV will not air live fights again until 2013, and Bellator is in the midst of its 2012 Summer Series, which promotes just one event per month from June to August.