Charter Communications and AMC Networks renewed their distribution deal for certain AMC-owned linear cable channels on Wednesday.
The renewal comes well before the expiration of a contract in place that allows Charter to distribute channels like AMC, IFC, We TV and BBC America to subscribers of its Spectrum TV service.
As part of the deal, Charter says it will not only be able to continue offering channels to Spectrum TV customers, but also extend access to the streaming service AMC Plus to subscribers with certain Spectrum TV packages. Customers who subscribe only to Spectrum Internet will be able to add AMC Plus as part of their service for a separate fee.
Access to network-owned streaming services has been of paramount importance to Charter since its distribution agreement with another programmer, the Walt Disney Company, lapsed last September. After a brief programming dispute, Charter and Disney eventually reached a new deal that allowed Spectrum TV customers to access Disney-owned streaming services. Charter has since renewed distribution deals with other programmers like Paramount, Televisa-Univision and Allen Media Group that allows it to offer its cable TV customers free access to streaming TV apps.
“This agreement with AMC Networks supports our goal of enhancing the value and variety of premium entertainment content available to our customers,” said Tom Montemagno, the Executive Vice President of Programming Acquisition at Charter. “The addition of AMC Plus at no extra cost for our TV Select customers builds on our new distribution framework, which this year alone has included the addition of Paramount Plus Essential, Vix Premium with Ads, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus. We appreciate AMC Networks’ partnership in reaching a distribution agreement that benefits our mutual customers and helps transform the video industry.”
“This early, multi-year agreement between Charter and AMC Networks ensures Spectrum TV customers will continue to have access to our high-quality original programming however they prefer to watch it, including through the ad-supported version of AMC Plus,” said Kim Kelleher, the Chief Commercial Officer of AMC Networks. “Charter has been a long-time partner, and this agreement reflects our strong and mutually beneficial relationship and commitment to viewers.”
Charter counted more than 13.3 million Spectrum TV subscribers as of July, including over 12.7 million residential TV customers. It offers AMC-owned cable networks through most of its Spectrum TV cable packages.
For its part, AMC has been an early proponent of tying its linear cable networks with its AMC Plus streaming service. For several years, subscribers of AMC Plus have had streaming access to linear channels through the AMC Plus app and through partner platforms like Amazon’s Prime Video Channels. Earlier this year, AMC inked a new distribution agreement with Philo that allowed the wallet-friendly service to incorporate AMC Plus content into its base programming package.
