Viacom Spiked By Appeals Court

Director Spike Lee has won another round in his legal struggle to keep Viacom from changing the name of TNN to Spike TV.

An appeals court in New York has upheld the injunction against Viacom preventing the media corporation from renaming its cable network, according to Zap2It. A prior ruling agreed with Lee's claim that the name "Spike" suggests a connection between the filmmaker and the network.

TNN spokesman Robert Pini insisted that Viacom had the right to use the common term "spike" in the new name for TNN. The company has argued that the name Spike TV reflects the masculine ethos of the channel, which is being relaunched as "the first network for men."

Spike TV's programming was slated to include reruns of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Star Trek, Baywatch and other shows targeted at male viewers, as well as new animated series Stripperella, featuring the voice of Pamela Anderson.

As previously reported, Lee had stated that he didn't "want to be associated with that Stripperella crap."

Viacom also claims to be losing significant revenue from advertisers who made commitments to purchase air time on the network based on the planned changes. The five appellate judges ruled that Viacom could appeal in September.

More information can be found at Zap2It and Yahoo!.

Discuss this news item at Talk CSI!
 Add CSI Files RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a Desperate Housewives fan? Then visit GetDesperate.com!