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Cable Chiefs Discuss Reality Programming, Apple Model And Blackberry Obsession

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday March 7, 2012 @ 4:28pm PSTTags: HRTS Newsmaker Luncheon, Mad Men AMC

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TV coverage

AMC’s EVP original programming Joel Stillerman claimed not to be concerned that Mad Men will have been off the air in originals for some 17 months by the time it finally returns for its fifth season on March 25. Speaking this afternoon at an HRTS Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton billed as a Cable Programming Summit, Stillerman said that Mad Men’s audience has proven to be among the most loyal in all of television, adding, “So while it’s never easy to make scheduling decisions that keep a show off the air longer than perhaps you’d like, I think it’s going to benefit the show in the long run, I really do.” Mad Men Jon Hamm had a slightly different view of the situation when appeared on Late Show with David Letterman last week. “When billionaires fight, it takes a lot longer to settle,” he said. “So we had some very wealthy people determining how long we would be off the air.”

The event, moderated by Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush, also featured Turner programming chief Michael Wright, MTV programming head David Janollari, ABC Family programming/development EVP Kate Juergens, and Starz managing director Carmi Zlotnik. All of the panelists agreed that non-scripted programming needs to be an increasing part of their overall original slates. “We should have been in the non-scripted space two years ago,” Wright admitted, “so we’re moving there very quickly now.” Wright also took the opportunity on the day the new version of the iPad was announced to praise the Apple model. “The thing I’ve always admitted about that company,” he said, “is it seems to have such a finger on what people want. They seem to have built a business based on products the user actually wants. For television, we should (also) create things the viewer actually wants. We really need to stay better attuned to that.”

A  lighter moment came at the end of the discussion, when Bush asked the panelists if they ever wake up in the middle of the night, grab their Blackberry, and start to answer emails. “Yes,” Zlotnik admitted, “and my wife says, ‘Put it down’.” Quipped Bush: “We’re talking about your Blackberry, I assume?”

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AMC Networks Chief Weighs Programming Revamp: UBS Confab

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday December 6, 2011 @ 7:52am PSTTags: AMC, AMC Networks, AMC The Walking Dead, Josh Sapan, Mad Men, Mad Men AMC, The Walking Dead

AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan told analysts at the UBS Annual Global Media and Communications Conference that he’s “exploring changing the mix of content on AMC” based on the recent success of its zombiefest The Walking Dead – and four non-fiction series he plans to introduce beginning next year. He wasn’t specific about how a revamped channel would look, though. “We’ll see how it goes,” he says. It’s easy to appreciate why he wants to shake up people’s perception of AMC. Pay TV companies currently pay about 25 cents a month for each home that receives the channel. But Sapan says that, with its many original shows, in a perfect world it’s “at minimum a 75 cent channel. …. We’re way underpaid.” He’s a realist, though, acknowledging that “we’re not necessarily going to get that tomorrow.” As a result, Sapan talked up his company’s efficient management of costs. For example, he says that his development costs are “modest.” Although it owns most of its non-fiction shows — “they’re not that expensive,” he says — for most of the shows on AMC “we have chosen not to 100% own.” Sapan says that ”it’s about risk appetite. … If a studio partner is going to come in and fund 30-odd percent of the cost, it’s sensible to de-risk that transaction.” Of course he has second thoughts about not seizing the chance to own AMC’s hit Mad Men. He wasn’t convinced that AMC would do so well with a talky series about ad execs in the 1950s and ’60s. ”It took everybody by surprise,” he says. But he was more confident about Walking Dead. ”That ownership decision was the wisest and best one,” Sapan says. Read More »

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UPDATE: Rainbow And AT&T Ink New Deal, ‘Mad Men’ Season Saved On AT&T U-Verse

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday July 15, 2010 @ 4:00pm PDTTags: AMC, AT&T, AT&T Rainbow Negotiations, AT&T U-verse Carriage Deal, Cable TV, Carriage Deal, Carriage Dispute, IFC, Mad Men AMC, Rainbow Media, Sundance Channel, TV, WEtv
Nellie Andreeva

at&t u-verseAT&T and Rainbow Media just announced they have reached an new carriage agreement for Rainbow’s AMC, IFC and WEtv on AT&T U-verse 16 hours after their most recent extension expired and 10 days before the fourth season premiere of … Read More »

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Carriage Dispute Threatens ‘Mad Men’ Debut

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday July 9, 2010 @ 2:59pm PDTTags: AMC, AMC Emmy, AT&T Rainbow Negotiations, AT&T U-verse Carriage Deal, Cable TV, Carriage Deal, Mad Men AMC, Mad Men Emmy, TV
Nellie Andreeva

UPDATED: Some 2.3 million subscribers in the country may lose AMC next week, just days before the Season 4 premiere of the network’s flagship drama Mad Men, which returns July 25. Broadband TV operator AT&T U-verse could drop Rainbow Media’s AMC, WE tv and IFC when the companies’ current carriage … Read More »

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