‘Mad Men,’ ‘Walking Dead’ Coming to Dish’s Sling TV Streaming Service

Dish’s streaming TV service just got a bit more interesting with the addition of cable channels owned by AMC Networks.

Under a deal announced Monday, Sling TV, the over-the-top streaming service Dish is offering to consumers for $20 per month without a satellite or cable TV subscription, will add the networks AMC, BBC America, BBC World News, IFC, Sundance TV and WE tv to its programming lineup. AMC is the marquee attraction here, with shows such as Mad Men and The Walking Dead now joining ESPN, TNT, TBS, Food Network, HGTV, CNN and others as part of Sling TV’s programming offerings.

Though Sling TV is available to consumers nationwide as of Monday, AMC’s networks will be added at a later date. The $20 per month price will remain unchanged.

With around 14 million subscribers, Dish ranks as the third largest pay TV operator behind Comcast and DirecTV. (It is the fourth largest if you include Netflix.)

Streaming-only services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu have grown in popularity in recent years as consumers have looked for cheaper alternatives to traditional cable and satellite subscriptions amid a shift away from live television viewing.

AMC was an early partner to Netflix, for instance, and the ability to binge-watch Breaking Bad on the service is widely credited with that show’s ratings gains in later seasons. Dish, Comcast and other entrenched pay TV operators are increasingly looking to offer cheaper, streaming-only services in a bid to keep these consumers from fleeing to new competitors.

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