Unfortunately for everyone caught in the crossfire, Dish Network and AMC have been duking it out over what the former referred to as a distribution problem and the latter said was a legal dispute with Voom HD. See, Dish Network dropped the Voom HD channels back in 2008, which led to them disappearing altogether, and litigation has been ongoing since. AMC Networks, which operates the aptly-named AMC, once operated those Voom HD channels. After much deliberation, and a payout to the tune of $700 million, Dish customers will once more be able to watch The Walking Dead.
Engadget explains:
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.
Though Dish might have originally claimed it was a distribution issue that caused them to drop AMC, it certainly seems like they’re not too concerned with it now. Maybe they just finally realized that their customers actually wanted to, say, watch popular television shows.
- The Walking Dead is the worst show that I can’t stop watching
- The show has had some serious hijinks on the production side
- Netflix and AMC are still buddies
