* Dish settles for $700 mln in cash
* Dish resumes broadcast of AMC Oct. 21
* Other AMC channels to be broadcast Nov. 1
NEW YORK, Oct 21 (Reuters) – Dish Network, the nation’s
third largest pay-TV provider, has settled its four-year old
lawsuit filed by Cablevision and AMC Networks over a
high-definition programming agreement, according to statements
from the companies released on Sunday.
As a result of the settlement, Dish will resume
broadcasting AMC’s channels.
Voom HD Holdings, then a unit of Cablevision, had
sued Dish Network for $2.4 billion in damages alleging it
violated a 15-year contract to carry a suite of high-definition
channels, including those devoted to Kung Fu and video games.
Dish pulled out these channels in 2008.
Voom is now a part of AMC Networks, which
Cablevision spun off last year.
Under the deal, Dish will pay a cash settlement of $700
million to Cablevision and AMC, according to a statement from
Cablevision. Some $80 million of that cash settlement would be
intended for the purchase of Cablevision’s wireless spectrum
licenses in 45 cities in the United States. Dish said that
covers a population of 150 million in cities such as New York,
Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Dish and its sister company EchoStar led by
billionaire chairman Charlie Ergen have spent several billion
dollars on acquiring wireless spectrum. Ergen plans to use the
assets to build a mobile network once the U.S. Federal
Communications Commission gives it approval.
As part of the settlement, Dish will also enter into a
long-term distribution agreement with AMC Networks to carry AMC,
IFC, Sundance Channel and WE tv, and with The Madison Square
Garden Company to carry Fuse on its satellite service.
Dish, in a statement, said it resumed broadcasting the AMC
channel on Sunday, Oct. 21. The AMC channel will be carried on
Dish channel 131.
Other AMC Networks programming, including Sundance Channel,
WE tv and IFC, will return to Dish on Nov. 1, Dish said. The
Madison Square Garden Company’s music-oriented Fuse channel will
begin broadcast Nov. 1, as well.
“This multi-year deal delivers a fair value for both parties
and includes digital expansion opportunities for AMC Networks’
programming,” said Dave Shull, senior vice president of
Programming at Dish.
Dish, then a part of Echostar, owned a 20-percent stake in
Voom, but was giving that up to Rainbow Programming Holdings, a
unit of Cablevision. Dish, as a result, will not retain any of
that $700-million settlement.
Dish in July blacked out AMC’s networks for its 14 million
subscribers, saying the channels did not generate ratings large
enough to justify the licensing fee increases AMC was seeking in
a new contract. Dish customers account for 13 percent of AMC’s
subscriber base.
AMC maintained, however, that Dish dropped its channels to
gain negotiating leverage in the Voom case and said the two
companies had never discussed a new carriage agreement.
