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AMC reveals global channel roll-out

US-based AMC Networks will launch its flagship channel, home to The Walking Dead, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, outside of North America for the first time later this year.

Local versions of the cablenet will begin launching on cable and satellite platforms across Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, accompanied by VoD, HD and TV Everywhere services.

AMC will replace the MGM Channel, the television programming arm of Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which airs films from the studio’s extensive movie library.

MGM Channel was acquired by AMC Networks as part of its buy-out of international channels and content business Chellomedia for US$1bn from Liberty Global in February.

Ed Carroll, AMC Networks chief operating officer, said: “It is our intention to replicate our successful US strategy, extending the AMC brand worldwide and creating a broad pipeline for our original content.”

AMC dramas Halt & Catch Fire and The Divide will be among the first original series to premiere on the channel internationally and exclusively, alongside movies from providers such as MGM, Paramount and Sony.

Partners include Spanish and Latin American pay-TV platform Telefónica, which will offer the channel as part of its Movistar TV package, and Indonesian pay TV platform Indovision.

The television division of Canada’s Entertainment One (eOne) is currently 11 months into a three-year output deal with AMC Networks, which sees the distributor handle international sales for all original scripted series that air on AMC and the Sundance Channel.

The news comes after AMC Networks rebranded its Chellomedia International Networks division as AMC Networks International last month. It consists of six operating units: Asia-Pacific; Central Europe; Iberia; Latin America; Zone (EMEA); and DMC, a European-based global media technology and distribution unit.

In related news, it emerged last week that AMC Networks is in discussions to take a substantial stake in BBC America, the US network owned and operated by BBC Worldwide (BBCWW) that airs Doctor Who and Orphan Black.

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