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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Dish vs. Cablevision court filing hints at a settlement, could lead to AMC’s return

If you're waiting for a sign that shows like The Walking Dead are coming back to Dish Network, a court document filed Thursday might be it. According to Reuters, the document was originally filed with the title "poss. settlement" (later changed to "adj. for briefing") and set a date for October 22nd. Additionally, the New York Post reports that on Wednesday the Judge adjourned proceedings for the week. As you'll recall, Cablevision sued the satellite company over its Voom HD channels being dropped back in 2008, and is asking for $2.4 billion in damages. If the two have found a resolution, the next question would be whether this affects Dish's negotiations with Cablevision spinoff AMC Networks, which the latter claims were derailed because of its connection to Voom. If the case proceeds, Bloomberg reports Dish CEO Charlie Ergen is set to take the stand Monday -- we'll see if this can get wrapped up before Mad Men and Breaking Bad return in 2013.

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Dish vs. Cablevision court filing hints at a settlement, could lead to AMC's return originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:42:00 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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