LOS ANGELES — Satellite broadcaster Dish Network dropped the cable channel AMC from its service as a feud between the programmer and distributor showed no signs of being resolved.
The dispute means that AMC has lost access to about 14 million homes just weeks before one of its most high-profile original shows — the drama “Breaking Bad” — is set to return. Dish has also dropped other channels owned by AMC parent AMC Networks Inc. including IFC, Sundance and WE TV. The current contract between the two companies expired June 30.
Dish has said it dropped AMC because the price to carry the channel was going up too high. The company has also expressed concern about AMC shows, including “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad,” being available on other services such as iTunes and Netflix soon after the shows have aired on AMC.
AMC disputes Dish’s reasons for dropping the channels and claims that the real reason has to do with a legal fight the two companies are engaged in. In 2008, AMC sued Dish for breach of contract regarding a distribution agreement.
“Dish customers have lost some of their favorite shows because of an unrelated lawsuit which has nothing at all to do with our programming,” AMC said in a statement, adding, “In fact, Dish has not discussed rates with us at all.”
AMC is also home to critically acclaimed dramas “The Walking Dead” and “The Killing.”
While such fights between programmers and distributors are not unusual, this one has been particularly nasty. Prior to AMC being removed from Dish’s service, the satellite broadcaster moved it to a different channel without any advance warning.
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Satelite tv prices have sky rocketed in the past couple years.
In some areas they have you over barrel
It would be nice if they let you pick out the channels you watch instead of a package
The prices will keep going higher. When stations did away with the analog stations all that did was make most people either go to cable, direct tv or dish. A big thanks for the government to allow this to happen!
DirecTv got too big for it’s britches and now has Dish grabbing customer’s left and right because of it’s rate’s. Now Dish is showing sign of getting stupid and outgrowing is britch’s. People are not gonna support any business that prices itself out of their customer’s reach. DireTv is learning that right now. Dish, I suspect, is about to find it out also. Now, if the much aclaimed DSL from Fairpoint can ever got off it’s dead butt and actually show up, it might actually be possible for actual competition to be here and work. But this year is gonna be a sad one for Maine at the rate things are going.
I bet the price without AMC will not go down 1 cent..
Of course not. Dish said they were giving us other channels to make up for the loss of the AMC stations. I would prefer to get the channels we have been paying for. I am seriously considering dropping Dish and going back to DirecTV. Only problem with DirecTV is their shoddy refurbished cheap equipment that needs to be replaced every few months.
These cable and satellite providers are shooting themselves in the foot. They’re speeding up their demise.
I called Dish a while back to complain about losing AMC and they told me AMC was still available and it was changed to another channel. They also assured me that AMC was not being dropped by Dish, which was an apparent lie.
I wish we had something other than Dish Network, DirecTV and Time Warner Cable to choose from. I refuse to do business with Fairpoint again after the shoddy service we have received and their inability or unwillingness to make necessary repairs to our phone lines so we could get the service we were paying for.
We need more choices to keep the competition up.
No big loss. Regardless of the movie, it’s frustrating to watch movies on AMC since there are just as many commerical-minutes as there are movie-minutes. No commercials on Netflix.
Just another reason to subscribe to cable (if available) instead of any dish service.