City council OKs contract that brings AMC, ‘Walking Dead’ back to life
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2015, 5:15 p.m. — Fans of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” won’t miss the second half of the season when it begins in February after action taken Tuesday afternoon by the Bardstown City Council.
Following the council’s vote at its 4 p.m. Tuesday special meeting, AMC was back up on the city cable system at 4:17 p.m.
Jeff Mills explains the proposed contract negotiated on behalf of the City of Bardstown by the National Cable TV Cooperative (NCTC).
On Monday, the city’s representative in negotiations with AMC Networks — the National Cable TV Cooperative — announced they had reached an agreement with the cable content provider. As reported by the Gazette on Monday, the specifics of the contract weren’t disclosed at the time.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Jeff Mills, city electrical engineer, discussed the proposed contract and broke it down in detail for the council, including a review of AMC’s initial demands for carrying its content.
MANDATORY CHANNELS. Initially, cable operators who wanted AMC also had to agree to carry all of the company’s other channels — BBC America, Independent Film Channel, SundanceTV and Women’s Entertainment TV. AMC also wanted cable operators to require cable operators to move those channels from the premium digital tiers into the more popular Expanded Basic tier.
RESULT. Cable operators with fewer than 10,000 subscribers — which includes Bardstown Cable TV — will not be required to carry all of AMC’s programming.
CONTRACT LENGTH. AMC’s initial contract offer was for a 10-year term, twice the length of its previous contract. As negotiations continued in late December, AMC reduced the proposed contract term to eight years.
RESULT. The new contract with AMC has a term of five years, four months.
RATE COMPUTATION. AMC also wanted to have cable systems pay a rate that was based on the overall total number of cable TV subscribers rather than the number who actually receive AMC content. The new contract keeps the existing rate calculations based on subscribers who view its content.
City Attorney Tim Butler takes a drink of water as he reads the amended cable TV rate ordinance at Tuesday afternoon’s meeting.
RATE HIKE ‘SUBSTANTIAL.’ The final agreement includes a rate increase that is triple the current rate, but still less than AMC was originally asking for, Mills said. This rate increase also includes access to all of AMC Networks’ channels. This means the city can add them to the cable system at anytime without additional cost.
The new contract also gives the city cable system streaming rights and “TV Everywhere” rights for AMC content it carries.
RATE ORDINANCE AMENDED. After the council approved the contract for AMC Networks, it next held first reading on a cable TV rate ordinance that is nearly identical to the one approved at its Dec. 29 council meeting.
The new contract with AMC means the final rates in the ordinance drop by 66 cents, which required starting over with an amended ordinance.
The ordinance will be up for final approval by the council at its Jan 12 meeting.
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