Viacom scrambles after name spiked

The National Network (TNN) has scrambled to react to court orders preventing a name change.

The case may provide comic relief to outsiders -- Spike Lee trying to stop Spike TV -- but it’s serious business to Viacom, the network’s corporate owner. The company estimates it cost nearly $17 million to stop the name change from TNN to Spike TV. The switch, which was supposed to take place June 16, was halted twice by New York state courts that ruled in favor of the filmmaker’s claim that the network was trying to co-opt his image. The case may not be resolved until at least September.

A massive advertising campaign has been completely overhauled, said Albie Hecht, TNN’s president. Instead of publicizing the name change, the ads now emphasize the programs and the network’s planned image: what it calls the first network for men. The Spike TV logos were removed and replaced -- in small type -- with TNN.

The attention given to the court case, however, has given Spike the kind of publicity money can’t buy.

“They’re trying to get attention to what they’re doing and now they will get a lot of attention to what they’re doing,” said James Goss, an analyst who studies Viacom for Barrington Research in Chicago. “It may wind up not being a bad thing.”