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AMC programming returns to Dish with lawsuit settlement

Dish customers will get their AMC programming back beginning tonight as part of a $700 million settlement.

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Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul on "Breaking Bad." AMC

Dish Network subscribers will get their AMC programming back tonight thanks to the settling of a lawsuit between the two companies.

Satellite TV provider Dish has agreed to pay $700 million in cash to AMC Networks, and in turn will receive licenses for wireless multichannel video distribution and data service in 45 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia. Under a separate multiyear agreement, Dish will resume broadcasting the AMC channel tonight on channel 131. Programming on Sundance Channel, WE tv, and IFC will resume on November 1.

"We are glad to have settled the case and reestablished our long-term relationships with AMC Networks and Cablevision," Dave Shull, senior vice president of programming at Dish, said in a statement announcing the deal. "This multiyear deal delivers a fair value for both parties and includes digital expansion opportunities for AMC Networks' programming."

Dish dropped AMC's channels from its lineup on June 30, claiming that the network's programming, which includes "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men," didn't justify the increased fees the TV network was demanding.

However, AMC countered that fees were never an issue and that the channels were dropped "in retaliation for an unrelated lawsuit" over Dish's 2008 decision to drop the lightly viewed Voom Networks, an independent subsidiary of AMC.