Dropped By Dish, AMC Pulls An Anti-Viacom: Offers Breaking Bad Premiere Free To Dish Subscribers
from the that's-how-it's-done dept
Yesterday, we wrote about Viacom's reactionary strategy of holding its fans hostage by shutting down online streams of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report after DirecTV advised its customers (who just lost access to Viacom shows) to watch them online. It was a childish move that punished a whole lot of fans (not only DirecTV users) just to gain leverage in a contract dispute, and a textbook example of how big media's shortsightedness drives people to piracy. Nobody was impressed.
So today it's interesting to hear about a network taking the exact opposite tack. AMC, home of a bunch of popular shows cast somewhat in the HBO mold, was recently dropped from the basic package for Dish satellite subscribers. AMC says that unlike the Viacom/DirecTV situation, they were not asking for more money and this was not a negotiation issue, but rather Dish trying to "gain leverage in an unrelated lawsuit."
So what is AMC's response? Well, the much-anticipated fifth-season premier of Breaking Bad, one of their flagship shows, is airing on Sunday—and they've decided to set up a special online stream just for Dish subscribers, so they can watch it for free. Meanwhile, they point out that virtually every other satellite and cable provider includes AMC in its basic package, and that several are now offering special sale prices for customers switching from Dish. They even have a toll-free line at 1-855-2DROP-DISH offering more information. For Dish, this is what you call a "PR nightmare".
But -- and here's where it gets even more interesting -- Dish claims they dropped AMC because the company insists they also carry some other less-popular networks bundled with it. That's why DirecTV says it dropped Viacom, too. It's a bit of an our-word-against-theirs situation as to the real cause of the conflict, and it's likely that neither company is entirely blameless. But AMC's first move was to go straight to the fans with a special offer to give them what they want. Viacom's first move was to... petulantly punish not only the fans involved in the dispute, but all of their fans.
Both Dish and DirecTV are experiencing backlash—even though some people support DirecTV in the bigger picture, most fans are just reacting to their favorite shows suddenly disappearing, and understandably getting annoyed with their service provider. But while AMC has leveraged the situation as a way to get good PR by offering fans something special, Viacom managed to extract its own dose of negative backlash by further depriving them.
Much like the MPAA, it seems Viacom needs a lesson in communications.
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Filed Under: breaking bad, public relations
Companies: amc, directv, dish, viacom
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Sorry I haven't subscribed to cable/dish for over 10 years, do they now ala carte the channels?
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FTFY
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Fans?
FTFY
Seems to me to be a big stretch, to think that many of their customers are Viacom "fans".
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Re: Fans?
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So..viacom/dish just collectively pissed in the cheerio's of the colbert nation, and i think it's been proven by now, that's not something you should do lightly. it'll be interesting to see how it's spun on the new episodes this week, bc i guarantee stephens going to bring it up.
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With that out of the way, nice PR move. You know what would be nicer? If they use this as a time to launch a reasonably priced subscription model for their stuff. I know if they do, I'll gladly give them a few bucks to be able to see Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, etc. instead of having to effectively wait until the next night to see them pirated (since eff subscribing to cable, and it takes long enough to upload that I'm not going to wait up to see them that night).
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It's hilarious how you and Pirate Mike love to say that people "were driven to piracy." You both make it sound like they had no choice and it's the owner of the right's fault that some pirate decided to violate their rights. Sorry, but you and Pirate Mike obviously have it completely backwards. Why not blame the party that willfully chose to violate the other party's rights? Why are you and Pirate Mike such pirate-apologist sacks of shit? Sorry to use curse words, but as far as I can tell, you both deliberately lie about who is truly to blame for piracy. In my opinion, both of you are worthless sacks of shit for pretending like piracy is the fault of anyone other than the pirates. Please go fuck yourselves and die. Thanks.
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I like how it's gone from trying to provide absolutely fake info to just flat out screaming, "Hey internet, you're wrong!" as if that's ever going to work.
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Just curious
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(And no, I have no interest in trying to have a civil debate with someone like you, I'm far too smart to be dragged into that. I'll just happily sit back and laugh at your efforts to troll)
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maybe the CIAA (consumer's industry association of america) can lobby congress for a law that extends the amount of time we own a dollar to 70 years after we first get it, and make it apply retroactively. so all those dollars we "steal" from the content industry won't technically be stolen anymore, as you'll still own the "rights" to those imaginary dollars. and the rights to any money we "pay" you will still be owned by us for the same period. after all, most of us put our heart and soul into earning those dollars, we can't give them away like that.
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Sounds far more reasonable than any of the inane BS you're spewing. So what?
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If they get 5x then any time they come back they are labelled either by IP or identifier for good.
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Lets watch, as the next post he makes goes to Leigh.
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Yes, everyone but you is Pirate Mike! It's Pirates and Mikes and Pirate Mikes EVERYWHERE! It's only a matter of time before the pirates in white come and drag you off to their padded pirate ship prison!
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Two words: therapy, yarrr!
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Hey kiddies, I be Pirate Mike! Yarrrr! First I'll plunder yer mom, then I'll plunder her jewels!
Shiver me timbers!
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So, what you are really saying is, when you were a kid no one would share their toys with you or play with you, and now you are an angry, bitter waste of human flesh because instead of maybe trying to learn why no one wanted to be around you and change the situation, you just skipped right on over to "it's everyone else's fault," stamped your feet, and now live your life a bitter exile that no one takes seriously and immediately hit "report" when they see you coming because they know all they are going to hear is hateful, irrational bile spewing from your cakehole.
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Is this the type of rhetorical debating style they teach in third tier law schools these days? If so, you should demand your money back.
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Or do they just offer 'law degrees' out to naughty kindergardeners as a special reward?
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Of course they had another choice: not pirate it, tell Viacom to shove it, and spend their money elsewhere. And guess what, Viacom would even be worse off due to the far lesser buzz created around their shows because of the decreased viewership. That's hilarious.
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When someone breaks into your house and steals your TV, they're a horrible person and should be punished. When two million people break into your house and steal your TV, you need to start looking for the common thread. (Hint, it's not that they wanted your TV.)
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Much like the MPAA it seems that Viacom needs a lesson in reality.
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1) Have a system on-hand to stream media throughout my house
2) Have collections of certain TV and movies to pull up at any time, to help with the times where I would sit down and flip through the channels until I found, say, Rocky 4 to watch for a half hour.
Other than that, I couldn't be happier.
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Are you listening, troll? Get out while you can, save yourself before your mind implodes!
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The real kisser is, as long as alot of people feel the same way, theres no need to contribute a fortune
I can imagine other companies minds ticking if something like that happened, they might actually start to give us what we want, and imagine the publicity
I know, foolish fancies, but one can only hope something or someone comes along to turn the tide
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We Are So Winning
LoweryTroll's comment about the sock puppets was just priceless.
You are just the cutest little troll ever.
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Others to Boycott
Sony: Rootkits, Frivolous lawsuits, Consumer Fraud
Walgreens: Outsourcing hundreds of American jobs overseas! (Network/IT/Accounting)
AT&T: Outsourcing hundreds of American jobs overseas! (All Departments)
R.I.A.A.
Illinois/Cook County/Chicago: Extortion through taxes, Coruption at the highest levels of government. Patrick Quinn, "Need I say more?"
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Cutting the Cord Today!
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Movie TV Streaming
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