Viacom and AT&T settle cable dispute

Viacom and AT&T settled a contract dispute early Monday that threatened to black out Viacom-owned cable channels like MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon for AT&T's 24 million TV customers in the U.S..

The big picture: AT&T demanded lower fees, while Viacom charged the telecom giant with abusing its market power after its merger with Time Warner gave it more clout.

Details: The companies did not release financial details. Last week, Viacom leveraged its onscreen talent in a public social media campaign to pressure AT&T.

Go deeper: In AT&T and Viacom spat, cable customers lose out