Dish drops AMC over digital distributors (even though Walking Dead is tops with viewers)
Digital distribution continues to fluster older broadcast business models. Dish Network, a U.S. satelite broadcaster, has said it dropped a bundle of channels – including AMC, which airs Mad Men and The Walking Dead – primarily because of their affiliation with Netflix and other digital channels.
The satellite giant said last week that it would stop carrying AMC and sibling channels WeTV, IFC and Sundance when their contract expires in June, citing low ratings and their digital availability. AMC connected the move with ongoing litigation between the companies.
Dish chairman and CEO Charles Ergen elaborated today on the assertion that digital outlets were undermining the AMC channels’ value. “Those particular channels are also available to our customers through a variety of other sources, like iTunes, Amazon and Netflix,” Ergen said during Dish Network’s earnings call.
The networks “devalued their programming content” by making it available on multiple outlets, he said.
AMC provides Netflix and other streaming video services only with library content; it doesn’t make episodes of series available until nearly a year after they appear on TV. Most other cable networks operate the same way.
Ergen said that Dish subscribers, who skew more rural, don’t want to pay more money for cable and that AMC’s ratings have “very, very, very low viewership.”
AMC countered that The Walking Dead is the top scripted drama among Dish subscribers.
The network has been vocal about its view that it is undervalued. It has been seeking about 75 cents a subscriber from cable and satellite companies, which would be a significant increase from the roughly 40 cents in carriage fees that analysts estimate the network receives now.
But Ergen argued that his customers are resistant.
“Our customers aren’t really saying, ‘We want to pay more money,’ ” Ergen said. “They are saying ‘We are more flexible in our programming, and we don’t want to pay more.’ ” He added that “it’s not as if something was exclusive.”
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