(Newser)
–
If you actually watched the commercials during Sunday night's Mad Men (instead of skipping them with your DVR like the rest of us), you saw the behind-the-scenes battle between AMC and Dish Network go nuclear. AMC aired a 16-second spot warning viewers that unless they intervened, Dish would drop its programming at the end of the month. Dish retaliated yesterday by moving AMC from channel 130 to the hinterlands of its channel listings: 9609, the Hollywood Reporter reports.
"We regret that AMC decided to involve viewers in that particular way," a Dish Network spokesman said. AMC is demanding Dish up its carriage fees, but Dish has said it will drop AMC and its sister networks instead, because AMC's demands are "too high relative to the low viewership." The spokesman did say, however, that negotiations are ongoing. Analysts believe Dish pays AMC about 50 cents per subscriber, or about $7 million a month.
