Viacom Spent $660,000 Lobbying Government In Q3

WASHINGTON (AP) � Viacom Inc., the owner of the Paramount Pictures movie studio and cable TV channels MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, spent $660,000 lobbying the federal government in the third quarter on issues including food marketing to children and television advertising, according to a disclosure report.

That's up 10 percent from the $600,000 that it spent in the second quarter.

Viacom also lobbied the government over online copyright infringement and a bill that would prevent the disclosure of information from a user of peer-to-peer file-sharing software without the user's consent.

In the July-to-September period, the New York company lobbied Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and other agencies, according to the report filed on Oct. 20 with the House clerk's office.