The Walking Dead may be equaling ratings gold for AMC since its return to the Sunday night line-up, with the series actually topping Sunday Night Football, but there is actually some trouble brewing behind the scenes. The network first tipped off fans last night to the fact that its current contract with DirecTV as a carrier is set to expire in a few weeks. While you would think the provider would be jumping through hoops to secure AMC Networks, that simply is not the case.
According to AMC Networks, DirecTV "has not engaged in meaningful negotiations with us, which leaves us to doubt whether a timely renewal is possible. In addition, DirecTV is in violation of our current agreement, and it has dropped AMC in Latin America. We hope to finalize a new agreement quickly, but in the meantime we think it is important to alert DirecTV customers who care about The Walking Dead that their ability to watch the show on DirecTV is at risk."
Before its 20.2 million subscribers had a chance to freak out too badly, DirecTV responded, saying that AMC is locked in with them to provide all of its programming for several more months and that fans will not have to worry about missing anything, sccording to Bloomberg.
The real concern seems to stem from the fact that The Walking Dead's season runs differently than other networks and the series will take a break in November and not return until several weeks into 2015. The vocal fans are afraid that if a deal is not reached, then they could miss out on the newest episodes that will begin airing next year.
It sounds like DirecTV has more than enough time to reach a new contract with AMC Networks, but do you think that it will see it as a priority? It does not make sense for it to allow hit programming like The Walking Dead to slip through its fingers, right? Comment below.
