If you have been watching anything on AMC you may have noticed the weird bragging during some of their commercials for some of AMC's bigger shows.
"Only on cable and satellite, not on Dish."
Weird thing to be smug about but that will give you an idea of the dispute that caused Dish to drop AMC, IFC, Sundance, and WEtv just about a month and a half ago.
Recently during a conference call the chairman of Dish Network had some choice words when one of his analysts suggested Dish may lose customers after cutting a network with shows like The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad. Chairman Charlie Ergen said the decision for Dish was a "no brainer", that "our customers aren't looking at zombies in New York City", and, referring to Dish customers, "they live on farms and ranches". I think he referred to The Walking Dead, a show that started out in suburban Atlanta and eventually found itself on a farm for all of season 2.
He does go on to make a few actual points. Pointing out that customers who like Mad Men could just go to iTunes and pay for it the night it comes out and it would be cheaper for Dish to pay those bills than for what AMC was asking. He also mentioned that Dish would have signed on with AMC if they weren't forced to take on the other channels with it, which is how every network operates with cable and satellite providers.
Needless to say it's odd to see such a large company not understanding what's on TV and what's popular. Recently my household had the choice of switching providers and Dish was a choice. We didn't choose them mostly because of the anti-AMC position. So I guess they are having trouble attracting new customers.
