It’s been almost six weeks since Dish Network severed ties with AMC since, at least according to the Dish CEO, its subscribers all live on Green Acres and want no part of city folks’ high-falutin’ TV dramas. But AMC apparently thinks that some Dish customers, regardless of where they live, might actually want to watch some of its shows — and are trying to tempt them with a free stream of the season premiere of Hell on Wheels.

The gritty western series about the building of the first transcontinental railroad is set to start its second season this Sunday on AMC. Dish subscribers who were fans of the first season are either going to have to watch the show elsewhere or wait until its available to stream online.

But today Dish customers received an e-mail from AMC that states, “Dish dropped AMC, so we’re offering a special live stream of the premiere for Dish customers.”

Dish subscribers can go http://amctv.com/hellonwheels4dish to register between now and Sunday.

Of course, AMC is hoping that some Dish subscribers will watch the stream and either demand the satellite service works out a deal with the broadcaster, or that these Dish customers simply ditch the dish in favor of a cable or fiber TV service that carries AMC.

At the very least, AMC may be hoping that people will be tempted to buy individual episodes of the show when they are available on streaming services like Amazon’s.

While we’ve seen premium channels like Showtime offer online previews of new shows in an attempt to lure subscribers, this is the first time we know of that a basic cable broadcaster has reached out in this way to customers of a cable/satellite service that doesn’t even carry the channel anymore.

Thanks to John for the tip!

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