Apparently dish plans to dump all AMC channels (AMC, sundance, IFC, WE tv) by july. Dish claims AMC wants too much money for relatively low viewership, AMC claims that dish is just annoyed about a lawsuit regarding voom HD (which was/is owned by AMC).
Personally, this doesn't directly affect me at all. I don't know if I've ever watched anything on sundance or IFC, WE tv has pure crap on a stick, and I don't recall the last time I watched anything on AMC. However, AMC supposedly has some hit shows that they claim many viewers will object to the loss of (mad men & walking dead are 2 they list).
Sundance has already been removed (which is what drew my attention to this. I was flipping channels & saw sundance said "off air" and thought it strange that a movie channel would be "off air". When I stopped to look, the channel says "this channel is no longer available, enjoy other dish channels", which prompted me to go online to see wtf was up.), the rest are scheduled to be dropped july 1st.
Personally, this doesn't directly affect me at all. I don't know if I've ever watched anything on sundance or IFC, WE tv has pure crap on a stick, and I don't recall the last time I watched anything on AMC. However, AMC supposedly has some hit shows that they claim many viewers will object to the loss of (mad men & walking dead are 2 they list).
Sundance has already been removed (which is what drew my attention to this. I was flipping channels & saw sundance said "off air" and thought it strange that a movie channel would be "off air". When I stopped to look, the channel says "this channel is no longer available, enjoy other dish channels", which prompted me to go online to see wtf was up.), the rest are scheduled to be dropped july 1st.
Wow I sell Dish Network and didn't even know this was going on. I was under the impression that Dish had secured contracts with all of the networks through 2013. With this being said it would be a very bad move if Dish removed AMC or any of their other stations like IFC, WE or Sundance. AMC and WE especially!
While I sell mostly internet now, I do sell a few a week and AMC is still a must have for many of my customers. Hopefully they come to an agreement which they usually do in these disputes. The kicker here is they are currently in a lawsuit with AMC over Dish dropping the Voom HD channels back in 2008 which caused those networks to shut down.
Here is an article on it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304746604577384080305759926.html
While I sell mostly internet now, I do sell a few a week and AMC is still a must have for many of my customers. Hopefully they come to an agreement which they usually do in these disputes. The kicker here is they are currently in a lawsuit with AMC over Dish dropping the Voom HD channels back in 2008 which caused those networks to shut down.
Here is an article on it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304746604577384080305759926.html
Yeah, I know, that's the lawsuit that I mentioned in the second line of my previous post. AMC claims that dish is doing this as revenge for the lawsuit.
Dish also argues that one of the reasons is the availability of the content via itunes, netflix, etc. That doesn't hold much water though, since the same logic would apply to just about every cable channel in existance.
Dish also claims that they're going to add other channels to replace the AMC ones, but have yet to mention anything about which specific channels.
Personally, I look forward to watching events play out. As long as dish doesn't go bankrupt or anything, it makes no diff to me.
On a related note, dish is also in court about a recently added commercial skipping feature. There's this hopper thing they came out with, which records all primetime shows for all the broadcast networks, and includes an opt-in automated commercial skipper. The networks are pissed and claiming it's a copyright violation, while dish is claiming that it's perfectly legal because the user has to opt in.
This too is one which I have no personal steak in. I honestly cannot remember the last time I watched ABC, NBC, or CBS. I find the fact that they still think so highly of themselves extremely laughable.
FOX I only watch a couple times a week (simpsons & family guy). PBS I watch occaisionally, at random, when I'm bored & they have something less boring than the other channels. The CW I maybe watch one or two cartoons a month on. On top of that, I can pull all of them in via antenna quite easily if I actually want to watch one.
Dish also argues that one of the reasons is the availability of the content via itunes, netflix, etc. That doesn't hold much water though, since the same logic would apply to just about every cable channel in existance.
Dish also claims that they're going to add other channels to replace the AMC ones, but have yet to mention anything about which specific channels.
Personally, I look forward to watching events play out. As long as dish doesn't go bankrupt or anything, it makes no diff to me.
On a related note, dish is also in court about a recently added commercial skipping feature. There's this hopper thing they came out with, which records all primetime shows for all the broadcast networks, and includes an opt-in automated commercial skipper. The networks are pissed and claiming it's a copyright violation, while dish is claiming that it's perfectly legal because the user has to opt in.
This too is one which I have no personal steak in. I honestly cannot remember the last time I watched ABC, NBC, or CBS. I find the fact that they still think so highly of themselves extremely laughable.
FOX I only watch a couple times a week (simpsons & family guy). PBS I watch occaisionally, at random, when I'm bored & they have something less boring than the other channels. The CW I maybe watch one or two cartoons a month on. On top of that, I can pull all of them in via antenna quite easily if I actually want to watch one.
I knew they were going to get sued over the Hopper's commercial skipping abilities when we had training on it a few months back. Even if they win the lawsuit the local affiliates in some areas may end up pulling their channels in protest. Dish has to understand that the networks make their money off of advertising and will do what ever is necessary to make sure that doesn't change. Yes any DVR can skip commercials, but we still get gimps of them while doing so.
Either way if this goes to court it will be a historical event like the 1979 court ruling in favor of Sony's Betamax player being able to record over-the-air programing.
I personally hope Dish wins. I hate commercials!
Either way if this goes to court it will be a historical event like the 1979 court ruling in favor of Sony's Betamax player being able to record over-the-air programing.
I personally hope Dish wins. I hate commercials!
Dish has dealt the first real blow in the battle (nobody cared enough about sundance to miss it), they've moved the AMC/WE/IFC channels to libo-land, up in the 9600s. Dish has long had duplicate copies of channels in the 9k range, but these are normally just copies of channels that exist in the normal range. Not the case this time.
...Of course, DBZ fans may consider this to be a good thing, since the remaining AMC channels are now "OVER NINE-THOUSAND!!"
...Of course, DBZ fans may consider this to be a good thing, since the remaining AMC channels are now "OVER NINE-THOUSAND!!"