DISH Drops AMC Networks (AMC Back on DISH channel 131)
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I have not a clue who will prevail, but just keep in mind everything now is from the VOOM side, just as at any trial it all sounds good till you hear the other side.
Come on! We all KNOW Dish illegally terminated their contract! The only question now, is how much Dish is going to pay out when they lose, and they WILL lose! You can't just break a legal contract just because you feel like you no longer want to live with the results... Dish can scream all they want that voom didn't spend the $100 million a year, but it's already proven that they did spend it. Dish can piss and moan that BLACK is actually WHITE, and that $100 million spent, isn't actually $100 million the way they'd prefer it to be spent, but they sure didn't pay any close attention until they decided to break the contract and destroy Voom.
Charlie isn't completely stupid, he knew darn well that Voom would go under because of this... This was a fully calculated move, and everybody lost. Now Dish is going to pay well for their illegal tactics!
Charlie isn't completely stupid, he knew darn well that Voom would go under because of this... This was a fully calculated move, and everybody lost. Now Dish is going to pay well for their illegal tactics!
AMC carriage gives Dish good leverage even in the event they lose. It could still force a settlement between both parties.
or it drags out for years in appeals while Dish figures out what to do.....
This made me laugh. Please point me to the statute that Dish violated by breaching the contract thus making the breach an "illegal" act. Oh wait, it's not illegal to breach a contract; breach just allows the other party to seek redress in civil court.
As for what we know or don't know, that's what the trial and introduction of evidence is for. What "WE all KNOW" doesn't count for squat. What either party can prove in court is what matters. And just because someone doesn't enforce their contract rights right off the bat doesn't mean they waive the right to later seek their enforcement. There are some situations where that can be the case, but I have seen no evidence to support such a claim in this instance.
Dish had legal exit statement in the contract that they used. It was all legal.
Dish used the exit statement because of the $100 million they spent, about $6 million was spent on corporate jets, parties,and executive bonuses. Details on this spending will come out in the trail.
Dish used the exit statement because of the $100 million they spent, about $6 million was spent on corporate jets, parties,and executive bonuses. Details on this spending will come out in the trail.
AMC/Voom already provided details regarding spending, accounting, financials and the agreements between both parties to the court - many are filed online. So besides the overwhelming documentation suggesting Dish knew, or should have known, the spend requirement included customary overhead, Dish will have to convince a jury they honestly believed the 100M per year spend requirement was on programming only. Of course, this is after Judge Lowe instructs the jury that Dish destroyed six months of evidence and they can presume would have supported Voom's case. Good luck with that defense!
Anyway, I predict Cablevision/AMC will have more money to spend on corporate jets, parties, and executive bonuses...oh, and let's not forget Cablevision/AMC paying back shareholder the nearly one-half billion dollars they invested in VoomHD when EchoStar walked-away from the remaining 13-years of their contract simply because they no longer liked the deal they signed.
I have read the docs. It shows the spend included non Voom employees. Employees that work on the other business at the time. All dish has to prove is they were $1.00 under $100 million. This should be easy. Then they just tell the jury they used the legal exit statement in the contract. They also tell them they lost emails they would just said they wanted out as no one wanted Voom because of the constant repeats due to the lack of spend, they will just get Charlie to state what was in the emails that are missing to bring them in as evidence and to counter the sanctions.
It is simple. Attorney will ask, Charlie do you recall writing an email on x date? Yes, what did it say? Do you have a copy of that email? No, what happened to it?, answer, our system only keeps 6 months of email due to limited hard drive size.
It is simple. Attorney will ask, Charlie do you recall writing an email on x date? Yes, what did it say? Do you have a copy of that email? No, what happened to it?, answer, our system only keeps 6 months of email due to limited hard drive size.
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My feeling is it was Voom who terminated the contract. If you remember correctly Dish wanted to keep 5 channels, it is my understanding that Voom said put them all back up or take them all down.
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Exactly!
Voom refused to do more than run 4 programs a day in endless repeat loops and DISH said okay, will cut you down to the 5 best Voom channels. You can put all your endless loops of reruns on those 5 channels . VOOM said no, all 15 channels or nothing. So DISH said okay, Nothing. Voom definitely failed on their end of the contract not once but twice. But DISH destroyed emails that makes them look guilty, like they had something to hide, in the eyes of most judges and juries. So who knows how it will end?
Which is exactly what Voom stated from Day 1 and serves to bolster their case. Did you read the Appendices to the Affiliation Agreement, did you read the preliminary agreement, did you look at the reams of accounting and financial data that was exchanged and agreed to during the due-diligence phase? The ambiguity is the terms 'spend' and 'service' were not defined in plain language within the strict confines of the contract. However, these terms were clearly defined prior to, during, and after execution of the agreement; Dish received them and Dish acknowledged them. Then, magically, when Dish was in the process of concocting a way out of this contract "Woosh" all the email correspondence at Dish Corporate disappeared...even though they had a legal obligation to maintain these business records since they were under legal notice. A few of these emails were captured because Dish was involved with eDiscovery efforts (yes, they were being sued by someone else) involving another case, but who knows what was lost. The court confirmed emails were destroyed (not lost...according to the court) because the emails that were captured from another case referred to other email correspondence that was unable to be recreated.
Again, believe what you wish. I supposed Dish could have some other documents in their possession showing Voom agreed that the spend requirement included *only* programming, but Voom apparently has no knowledge of these documents and they certainly don't appear to have been introduced into evidence. Right now all we have is a vast quantity of documents showing that Voom provided details regarding what they understood the terms 'spend' and 'service' to mean coupled with Dish execs word that they interpreted 'spend' to refer to direct expenditures on programming, and not customer overhead and shared expenses. Not one document has been produced by Dish telling Voom what they understood spend to mean, and the jury will be told that Dish destroyed 6-months of evidence that would have been useful in proving Voom's case. I suppose a jury can conclude whatever they wish...but it will be an uphill battle for Dish/SATS. As you'll recall, in the case of an ambiguous contract the court opined that supplemental evidence would be evaluated in order to determine what the parties knew or were reasonably expected to know about what the term 'spend' meant.
The ONLY smart thing Dish did here, was holding out for a jury trial. It's the only hope they have left. If they had stayed with the judge, this case would already be over.
Dish should have tried to negotiate up front in good faith with Voom, instead of Charlie's "gunslinger" tactics. MAYBE then they would have gotten somewhere, and we'd still have some form of Voom.
Dish should have tried to negotiate up front in good faith with Voom, instead of Charlie's "gunslinger" tactics. MAYBE then they would have gotten somewhere, and we'd still have some form of Voom.
Scott, I just called my mortgage company and told them I am unwilling to pay the balance of my mortgage and offered to pay 1/3rd of the balance along with a much lower interest rate - 0.75%. They refused my offer! I cannot believe the selfish bastards just terminated our agreement.
P.S. I have a house for sale...real cheap...cash only, please!
There is a major difference between a purchase loan and a contract for services. It is near impossible to collect for services not delivered after investment costs to deliver the service are covered.
E.g., you buy a truck to make deliveries for a contract and you die. You spouse may recover the cost of the truck from the contract but not the wages for the the rest of the contract.
Voom ain't squeaky clean in this deal...Dish signed a bad contract (note their VP of Programming is long gone) and Voom elected to bleed them dry for the next 13-years of the contract since they couldn't find a buyer for VoomHD (15 channels package) and they didn't want to break it up into smaller chunks since Dish had MFN status (i.e., Dish would have to be offered similar terms). Likewise, if they did find takers for Monsters and a one or two other channels, they certainly wouldn't command the premium price that Dish was paying. Come 2007/8 HD was no longer a premium service and, in fact, many distributors were demanding free HD feeds when subscribing to the SD channels.
At this point Dish should have acknowledged they signed a bad contract, cut their ties with Voom, sent them a check for $500 million, and tell them to pound sand or take them to court if they wanted another penny. Voom would have quietly disappeared. Instead, Dish threatened Voom repeated (alternately blowing hot and cold) and, when they couldn't find a contractually legal way out of the agreement, they asked Voom to provide them with free service for six months in order to generate more HD customers while they ironed out their differences - Voom complied and Dish did not pay one penny for service during the it's final six months on Dish Network. According to Voom, Dish already knew they were going to terminate the agreement if Voom did not do as Dish wanted - it was bad faith Ergen style.
I'm not sure of the exact figures (haven't seen them in couple years) but I recall that Voom invested more than 300M in the Voom service and they were only paid something like 46M in affiliation fees from Dish. Again, don't quote me on this total since I don't feel like searching (and compiling) this information. The take-away is that Voom is out hundreds of millions of dollars in this deal and they are out to extract a pound of flesh from Dish Network. If so, AMC will not be on Dish for a long, long, long time...unless their unsophisticated rural bumpkins customers who don't care about Mad Men, The Walking Dead, Breading Bad, The Killing, Hell on Wheels (that's how Dish characterized them) start leaving for other providers.
On a side note, I don't watch the aforementioned shows and I really miss the former AMC channels when they used to show...well, American Movie Classics. I wonder how many of the aforementioned shows may have been exclusively produced for Voom if they had managed to obtain carriage deals with other providers or even stayed on Dish? Anyway, in retrospect Dish may have no other option than the terminate the Voom agreement, but they certainly went about it the wrong way...and decision that may cost them hundreds of millions if not billions. We shall see.
I understand that...I was just being facetious. However, they are both contracts in which both parties are bound to the terms and conditions.
My prediction for a settlement. . .
In the End I think Dish will just end up paying Two years worth of the Voom cost or $200 Million to Voom (AMC), plus they will get all the AMC channels back plus streaming rights and a VERY low cost on a contract over several years.
Dish might even pay for Monsters HD and we will see it come back or some other small Voom channel.
Dish will just write of the $200 from taxes.
Both Sides win.
In the End I think Dish will just end up paying Two years worth of the Voom cost or $200 Million to Voom (AMC), plus they will get all the AMC channels back plus streaming rights and a VERY low cost on a contract over several years.
Dish might even pay for Monsters HD and we will see it come back or some other small Voom channel.
Dish will just write of the $200 from taxes.
Both Sides win.
