AMC Networks and the National Cable Television Cooperative, a consortium of small and rural cable providers, are at an impasse, reports The Wall Street Journal.

AMC Networks — which includes AMC, WEtv, IFC, Sundance TV, BBC America and BBC World News — wants NCTC members to pay subscription fees for all of its companies’ cable subscribers, regardless of whether or not those subscribers are actually receiving all of those networks. AMC also is pushing NCTC to carry all of its networks on as many of its operators’ tiers as possible, even though customers are requesting so-called “skinny bundles,” which gives them the option to pay less for less networks.

Cable programmers such as AMC are trying to protect themselves as skinny bundles and other options take hold. The result may be the blackout of AMC Networks, which carries such hit shows as The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul, on 750 small cable systems serving approximately 4 million customers.

For its part, the NCTC says its members cannot afford AMC’s terms, which would run for ten years and more than double the fees that they pay now. For example, Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. says it would have to “pay $1.4 million a year to AMC with annual step-ups, compared to the roughly $500,000 it pays the programmer today,” reports the Journal.

Should NCTC make such a deal, the result will be higher cable bills for customers, it argues. Those customers tend to blame the cable operator, because they don’t realize (or care) that the cable operator is passing through costs imposed on it by programmers.

The NCTC has filed a complaint about the matter with the FCC, and met with the Media Bureau last week, says the Journal.

Brief Take: AMC’s hardball stance is likely just a preview of things to come as programmers wrestle over terms with distributors.

Read more: The Wall Street Journal

[Cube image courtesy of AMC via The Wall Street Journal]

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