Cable

摘要

Cablevision and AMC Networks continue to negotiate dividing up the $700 million the companiesnreceived in settlement of a breach-of-contract suit with Dish Network, AMC executives told analysts in anconference call. The fall settlement called for Dish to pay Cablevision and AMC $700 million, includingn$80 million for multichannel video distribution and data revenue (MVDDS) spectrum licenses. The pactnended a long-running breach-of-contract suit for far less than the $2.5 billion that had been sought fornDish’s dropping Voom HD in 2008, ending a 15-year distribution agreement signed three years earlier.nWhile analysts have speculated that Cablevision would receive $390 million and AMC would get $310nmillion, AMC CEO Josh Sapan declined to disclose details, including when a final agreement might benreached. AMC spent $11 million on Dish-related litigation in 2012, up from $5 million a year earlier, Sapannsaid. The pact with Dish was reached in October as AMC settled a carriage dispute with the satellitenservice operator, which had dropped its channels — AMC, We, Independent Film Channel (IFC) and Sundancen— in July. The dispute with Dish cut into AMC’s Q4 revenue, which rose 8 percent to $367 million.nAMC’s Q4 sales would have been up "healthy double digits" had its networks not been dropped bynDish, Sapan said. AMC’s adjusted operating cash flow rose 5.4 percent in Q4 to $465 million, but wouldnhave jumped 14 percent to $505 million had there been a carriage agreement with Dish, BTIG analystnRichard Greenfield said. AMC’s Q4 net income dropped to $15 million from $29 million a year earlier,ntied largely to the cost of repaying a loan. AMC reached carriage agreements last year with AT&T, Comcast,nSuddenlink, Verizon FiOS and a short-term pact with Time Warner Cable, analysts said. The TimenWarner Cable agreement expired at year-end. Meanwhile, AMC is developing a direct-to-consumernstreaming video service and will "have more to say on this initiative in the coming weeks," an AMCnspokeswoman said. Netflix has been AMC’s "primary" partner for video streaming, she said. AMC’snMad Men starts a new season on April 7, while Hell on Wheels is expected to start a third season in Q3,nanalysts said. A third season of The Killing started production Feb. 25 in Vancouver, Canada, as part ofnan agreement with Fox Television.