The TV channel AMC has a huge critical hit, the show “Mad Men”, on its hands. It’s never been clear how much money they make of the show – a critical hit is not necessarily an audience hit. They are trying to make more money by cutting the budget and the length of the show and putting in ads. The show’s creator Matt Weiner is having none of it. Both sides have dug in their heels and there is a war of attrition. Inside reports suggest:
“Weiner may just walk away from the show and the AMC execs are threatening to go ahead with Mad Mean without Weiner”
Neither side has a fully credible threat. Weiner loves his show too much to walk way from it and AMC needs the show as it put the channel on the map.
Both sides need to work on their outside options. Weiner should talk to HBO which is kicking itself for turning down the show years ago. AMC has an option on the show for one more year but then all bets are off. Who knows how ambiguous AMC’s option on Mad Men is. Maybe the show’s name can be changed and the whole thing can move with a new name to HBO.
Negotiating advice is harder to offer to AMC. Do they have great shows right now or in the planning stage they can slot into the Mad Men time slot? They can threaten to do the show without Weiner but if the actors and writer/director leave, is it really going to draw in an audience or the critics?
Cheap Talk 
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March 31, 2011 at 4:47 pm
twicker
They really need to find a way to make more money off it, because this is, at the moment, a lose-lose for them (as you’ve pointed out). Maybe AMC allows HBO to pick it up for a portion of the profits, and AMC then gets some rights to show reruns (say, a week or month or whatever after original release)? Something like that might be able to keep viewers for AMC and give HBO a product, very much depending on how big the new market (HBO first-run + AMC rerun) would be projected to be (and would end up as).
Maybe on first-run through HBO On Demand or a special AMC online subscription service? I could see AMC starting a pay-per-view service for it and some other products on Hulu or iTunes or some such (esp. given that Internet streaming is absolutely the future).