Viacom and Time Warner, facing a backlash from TV viewers furious at losing out on some of their favourite programmes like 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and 'Dora the Explorer', after Viacom threatened to pull 19 of its cable channels, including Nickelodeon, MTV, VH-1 and Comedy Central, have reached a new programming agreement, thus settling their contract dispute that expired at midnight on New Year's Eve.

Just as the New Year emerged, Viacom extended the contract, so that both sides could continue the talks, eventually clinching the deal and thus avoiding a blackout of Viacom's programming in 13.3-million US homes served by Time Warner Cable Inc., as well as, nearly 2-million in and around Los Angeles .

Details of the agreement will be finalized by the two media giants over the next several days. An uncertain economy and tight advertising budgets augur hard times for the media industry as contracts continue to mature and new ones need to be drawn up.