AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’ season 3, ‘Breaking Bad’ back on Dish Network

It took quite a while longer than anyone wanted it to, but we finally have some great news coming out for fans of “The Walking Dead,” “Breaking Bad,” and every other AMC series: the long battle with Dish Network over carriage of the channel is now finally over.

This battle really started off earlier this summer after the end of “Mad Men’s” fifth season, and through it all, the network blamed the lack of carriage by the satellite provider on an unrelated lawsuit that involved Dish’s decision to not air the VOOM HD channels that were a part of the AMC Networks banner. It was a long and complicated battle, but the good news is that this suit was finally settled this weekend. The even better news? The two parties also came to a new carriage agreement, and now these series will finally be made available on Dish Network yet again.

What will be really interesting to watch now is seeing if “The Walking Dead” manages to increase its ratings yet again now that it is available in several more million homes than it was at this time last week. Of course, the irony here is that the zombie drama still managed to smash cable records with over 10 million viewers as well as a 5.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic that actually topped any scripted or unscripted network programming on the week. With this in mind, we would not necessarily be stunned if the show draws the same sort of ratings this week, thus breaking a tradition of shows losing viewers the week after the premiere.

Are you pleased that this lengthy dispute is finally over, and who did you really blame for this to begin with: Dish (who claimed that the AMC Networks were too expensive), or AMC?

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