‘Dead’ ahead? Council to meet Tuesday to consider new AMC contract

NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT

Monday, Jan. 4, 2016, 4 p.m. — Fans of “The Walking Dead” may have reason to celebrate the New Year a few days late — a deal has been reached that could bring AMC and “Dead” back to the Bardstown Cable TV system.

The co-op that represents the city and other cable operators in negotiations with AMC — the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) — announced today that it has struck a deal with AMC Networks.

The details of the deal haven’t been released, but both sides issued statements praising the agreement.

Mayor John Royalty has called a special meeting of the Bardstown City Council for 4 p.m. Tuesday in order to consider the terms of the new agreement. The council will also hold first reading on a revised Cable TV Rates ordinance that apparently will reflect the council’s final decision on whether to keep or drop AMC.

According to the Jan. 4 story in Variety, AMC Networks kept its programming available to NCTC members during the negotiation process. However, that was not the case for a number of cable systems, including Bardstown Cable, who saw AMC go dark at midnight Dec. 31 in the middle of a “Walking Dead” marathon.

AMC was replaced by a NASA TV feed, along with a text crawl explaining the loss of AMC was due to the network’s renewal demands.

According to Variety, the new contact is expected to last more than five years.

“We appreciate AMC Networks’ willingness to take the time to understand our members’ unique challenges and concerns, and their creativity to construct an agreement that addresses the concerns of many of our members,” said Judy Meyka, NCTC’ s executive vice president of programming, in a prepared statement. “AMC Networks has made a significant investment in the programming on their networks and we are pleased that our members have the option to continue offering this programming to their customers.”

“We are pleased to have reached a new distribution agreement with NCTC,” said Bob Broussard, AMC Networks’ president of network sales, in a statement. “We have enjoyed a long and successful partnership with NCTC and we look forward to continuing to provide our popular and acclaimed programming to NCTC members and their customers.”

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