AMC judged to be not classic enough BY HARRY BERKOWITZ
STAFF WRITER
Originally published July 12, 2005
The American Movie Classics channel runs too many films that are not classic enough, violating its contract with Time Warner Cable, a State Supreme Court justice has ruled.
As a result, Justice Bernard Fried of State Supreme Court in Manhattan said Time Warner Cable, the second-biggest cable operator in the nation with 11 million subscribers, has the right to cancel its contract to carry AMC, which is owned by Cablevision Systems Corp.
Under that 1993 contract, extended in 2000, AMC is largely limited to running films from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. But in 2000 AMC announced it was adding "contemporary" movies, more movie-based original series, documentaries and specials in search of new, younger and bigger audiences.
Besides John Wayne and Audrey Hepburn films, its regular fare now includes movies like "Fatal Attraction" from 1987, "Look Who's Talking Too" from 1990 and "Honeymoon in Vegas" from 1992, the kinds of films that are also common on several other channels, including USA and TNT, which Time Warner owns. Time Warner also owns Turner Movie Classics.
AMC "portrayed itself, as of September 1993, as a classic film channel which showed almost exclusively classic films released prior to 1960," Fried said in the 36-page ruling, adding that AMC "with great fanfare announced that it was going to, and did in fact, change this programming character," altering the "quantity and quality of the programming."
The ruling is not expected to force AMC to backtrack. It reaches nearly 87 million TV homes and has seen ratings climb since it changed strategies.
AMC said that it will appeal the ruling and that the dispute "will not affect the quality of programming that subscribers have come to expect."
Rather than drop the channel or force a change, Time Warner Cable is expected to try to negotiate a better deal for itself, perhaps lowering the monthly fee it pays to carry AMC. "We are presently evaluating our relationship with the network going forward," Time Warner Cable said.
Earlier this year, AMC signed a deal worth about $80 million with another part of Time Warner for rights to show 22 Warner Bros. films in the future, including the new "Batman Begins" and "Million Dollar Baby." An industry source said the film rights under that deal are specifically protected from the outcome of the court fight with Time Warner Cable.
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