Advanced Television

AMC carriage crisis

June 29, 2012

By Chris Forrester

The long-running dispute with between Dish Network and the AMC bouquet of film and entertainment channels has spread to AT&T’s U-Verse service. AT&T said that may cease transmissions of AMC’s key channels this weekend if it cannot reach an agreement over carriage fees.

AMC is seeking extra cash because of its high-rated shows such as ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Breaking Bad’. The current agreement with AMC expires June 30th, and U-Verse says AMC Networks is seeking an “excessive rate increase”.

In a statement Thursday, AMC said, “We are disappointed that, just days before the July 15th season premiere of AMC’s Breaking Bad, we have not yet reached an agreement with AT&T that adequately reflects the popularity of our programming and AMC’s position as a top tier network with acclaimed shows like The Walking Dead, basic cable’s highest-rated scripted drama series.”

AMC’s statement added that the argument with AT&T is different from the situation with Dish, “which has threatened to drop AMC Networks in retaliation for an unrelated lawsuit between the two companies.”  This comment refers to litigation between AMC/Rainbow over Dish’s handling of the VOOM HD cluster of channels.

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