Dish Network settles Voom HD lawsuit, AMC comes back on the air tonight

Dish Network settles Voom HD lawsuit, AMC comes back on the air tonight

Dish Network customers have been without AMC and its family of channels since July 1st, but thanks to a settlement between the satellite company and Cablevision's former Voom HD unit, AMC will be back on the air starting tonight. The possibility of a settlement leaked out late last week via a court filing, and it looks like Dish CEO Charlie Ergen will avoid taking the stand Monday after all. According to the terms, Dish will hand over $700 million in cash plus its 20 percent stake in Voom, and receive 500MHz of video and data spectrum licenses in 45 areas. In a separate deal, Dish and Cablevision spinoff AMC Networks have a new multiyear deal that should bring back AMC (on channel 131) in time for The Walking Dead to air tonight, and all of its other channels (IFC, WE tv, Sundance and for the first time, Fuse) starting November 1st. While Dish had previously claimed the channel deal was being held up by AMC's distribution of its shows via iTunes, Netflix and Amazon, now that lawsuit is over those concerns seem to have faded away.

Continue reading Dish Network settles Voom HD lawsuit, AMC comes back on the air tonight

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Dish Network settles Voom HD lawsuit, AMC comes back on the air tonight originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Oct 2012 16:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMC dropped from Dish Network, cuts a new deal to stay on with AT&T U-verse

AMC dropped from Dish Network, still in negotiations with AT&T

As June expired, so did AMC's contract with both Dish Network and AT&T U-verse. While negotiations continue with AT&T and its channels remain on for the moment, AMC is already firing at Dish for dropping its channel immediately (after shifting it to an entirely different channel number a few weeks ago), claiming no negotiations have even taken place. As we heard in May, AMC maintains that the real issue is a court case between the two over the Voom HD debacle. For its part, Dish is telling customers the problem is fee increases requested by AMC and "devaluing" its programming by offering it on iTunes, Netflix and Amazon.com. As a result it's swapping in commercial-free HDNet Movies for AMC, and replacing two other AMC channels, WE and IFC, with Style and HDNet (soon to become AXS TV). We'll see how these negotiations go -- it's not too bad now but let's see how viewers react once the new season of Breaking Bad starts airing July 15th.

Update: As we went live, AT&T has announced it reached an agreement with AMC Networks, so it's only Dish Network that's on the hotseat now. [Thanks, @soulfliesfree]

Continue reading AMC dropped from Dish Network, cuts a new deal to stay on with AT&T U-verse

AMC dropped from Dish Network, cuts a new deal to stay on with AT&T U-verse originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Jul 2012 14:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hulu Japan lands HBO content, but don’t expect any changes in the US

Hulu Japan lands HBO content, but don't expect any changes in the US

Hulu Japan has mailed in a status update noting that its content library has increased by more than 300 percent since launching last fall, now amounting to over 800 films and around 6,900 TV shows. Newly added to that list is Mad Men and more notably, "select HBO shows" including Entourage and Sex And The City today, followed by Entourage and Band of Brothers later this year. Of course, similar to the situation that sees Showtime favorites like Dexter available on Netflix in Latin America but not here in the States, it doesn't make it any more likely HBO will suddenly become cord-cutter friendly at home -- this is an international deal only. Hulu does have more good news in Japan though, now that it works on more devices with the Wii coming soon and "aggressive expansion" planned for the rest of 2012. While it doesn't help the list of Hulu Plus-compatible Android phones grow any faster, there is a quick trailer celebrating the new content, viewers on either side of the Pacific can check it out after the break.

Continue reading Hulu Japan lands HBO content, but don't expect any changes in the US

Hulu Japan lands HBO content, but don't expect any changes in the US originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dish Network, AMC dispute could see the network’s channels dropped this summer

It wasn't that long ago that Dish Network was proudly offering AMC HD to its customers (especially since DirecTV didn't, which has since been rectified) but now the company is willing to let the network's contract expire this summer, taking new episodes of Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead away from subscribers. The source of the sudden animosity, according to a press release from AMC, is continuing litigation between it and Dish Network over dropping the Voom HD channels back in 2008, leading to them going dark soon after. The LA Times reports Dish Network claims the denial of its appeal on a decision in the case has nothing to do with its sudden change of heart is solely about AMC's high renewal cost for a relatively low viewership. Whatever you believe, the sniping and threats will likely continue right up until the contract runs out June 30th, which is at least long enough for this season of Mad Men to finish on its own.

Continue reading Dish Network, AMC dispute could see the network's channels dropped this summer

Dish Network, AMC dispute could see the network's channels dropped this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 May 2012 19:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAMC Networks, The Hollywood Reporter  | Email this | Comments