AMC Networks’ loss of Dish Network’s carriage fees cut its...
AMC Networks’ loss of Dish Network’s carriage fees cut its total subscribers by 13 percent in Q2 and the impact of cash flow and operating income will be “materially higher” if the impasse continues, the company said Thursday, releasing earnings.…
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Dish dropped AMC, home of Breaking Bad and Mad Men, July 1 in a dispute over carriage fees and in a bid to gain leverage in an unrelated suit, CEO Josh Sapan said in a written statement Thursday. AMC, along with former parent Cablevision, sued Dish several years ago for $2.5 billion, claiming it improperly ended a 15-year contract to carry the Voom HD satellite service. Cablevision shut down Voom HD in 2005, a little over a year after the service began. Voom later signed a carriage agreement with Dish, then known as EchoStar. Cablevision’s Rainbow Media, which included AMC at the time, gained distribution for Voom with Dish and British Sky Broadcasting. Dish stopped carrying Voom in May 2008 and Cablevision sued a short time later. The case, which had been scheduled for trial in April 2010, now is expected to start Sept. 18 in New York Supreme Court, the state’s highest civil trial court. AMC’s Q2 net income rose to $41.4 million from $27.1 million as revenue rose 12 percent to $328 million. Advertising sales rose 13.4 percent to $130 million. The improved earnings were driven by AMC’s renewal of distribution agreements, including one with AT&T, AMC said.