Yesterday we reported on Sunday’s biggest news item: the announcement that Viacom, Lionsgate and MGM are going to form their own pay-cable channel to compete against HBO/Starz/Showtime.

This announcement was a surprise to mostly everyone because Viacom film properties are still in negotiations with Showtime. Someone screwed someone, and everyone wants to point the finger elsewhere.

For one thing, the three companies are still negotiating the terms of a long-term partnership with Showtime, once again; as far as everyone knows. This could be a big show in an attempt to get Showtime to up their offer for film content.

This makes sense because the announcement was as buried as it possibly could be, being that it was released this Sunday. Pair that together with the disturbing lack of actual details about the channel and we might be looking at a hoax.

Variety has some other ideas:

On Sunday, the venture partners hinted at a possible twist in the traditional pay cable business model that creates an approach different from that of HBO, Showtime and Starz.

Dauman said the focus is on “programmers controlling their own destiny” as he pointed out that pay TV deals currently “have a lot of restrictions” on new media and other usage of the content. He also hinted that the new service could make films available on-demand on the same day they hit the pay TV window.

One source said the venture has been looking for a business model that potentially gives cable and satellite TV partners some new benefits, like a mix of current business models for basic cable and premium networks. In such a scenario, the venture’s channel could get revenue from carriage and/or subscriber fees plus advertising revenue. Viacom on Sunday had ruled out a traditional ad-supported basic cable network approach.

The new outlet would face a challenge in securing carriage. A source on the distribution side said the new channel could look expensive for cable and satellite firms at a time when many of them have day-and-date VOD trials running with the major studios and also can get a lot of product in the pay-per-view window.

Keep an ear to the ground BNU’rs, we’re either adding another channel to our already expensive cable bill or we’re covering Viacom’s dirty negotiation tactics.

Either way, something fishy is going on.