AMC Networks — the company behind such cable channel brands as AMC, IFC and Sundance TV, as well as such streaming services as AMC+, Acorn TV and horror streamer Shudder — reported a 10 percent drop in third-quarter U.S. advertising revenue to $133 million on Friday. It cited “linear ratings declines and a challenging ad market, partly offset by digital and advanced advertising revenue growth.”
Quarterly affiliate revenue decreased 13 percent to $164 million, “primarily due to basic subscriber declines.”
After returning to streaming subscriber growth in the third quarter of last year after two quarters of declines, the company added around 200,000 users in the latest quarter to end September with a total of 11.8 million subs, compared with 11.6 million as of the end of June.
Original series on AMC in the third quarter included The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – the Book of Carol, starring Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride; season 4 of the dystopian Snowpiercer, starring Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs; and Orphan Black: Echoes with Krysten Ritter and Keeley Hawes.
The company, led by CEO Kristin Dolan, has been leaning into data-led audience targeting for ad buying as marketing dollars continue to shift from linear TV networks to ad tiers being rolled out by streaming platforms. “It’s a huge opportunity to finally swing the pendulum back from digital-first to shared purchase of traditional television as well as digital to support the advertiser efforts,” Dolan said earlier this year.
On Friday, she said: “As we manage this business within a complex and changing environment, we remain focused on our key strategic pillars — programming, partnerships and profitability. During the quarter, we made significant advancements across all three areas.”
Added Dolan: “We also entered into new and enhanced partnerships with major companies like Charter, Netflix, Amazon and others which are driving our company forward as we continue to provide distinctive, high-quality programming to customers across an expanding array of platforms.”
In late August, the company struck a partnership with Netflix to put prior seasons of 15 AMC series on Netflix for U.S. subscribers for the next year. Dolan said the company has been “very pleased by its performance on this massive streaming platform,” with shows such as Dark Winds and Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches in the Netflix Top 10 watched chart. The rights to The Walking Dead universe revert back to AMC Networks in about two years.
As far as the strategy on licensing content, versus keeping content on their own platform, executives say AMC+ is “arguably a catch up service for the linear network,” and the company prioritizes putting new and current seasons there.
Executives said the second season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is available to stream only on AMC+ and since season one became available on Netflix, acquisition activity related to the show more than doubled on AMC+. Since season one of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire became available on Netflix, AMC+ acquisitions driven by season two “increased nearly four times from the pre-Netflix baseline.”
“We’re increasingly focused on non-exclusive deals that allow us to monetize our content multiple times on multiple platforms, whether ours, or partners, and oftentimes both, we’re really but we do this very thoughtfully to ensure that we’re protecting the value of our content by retaining the premieres and the new seasons,” Kim Kelleher, chief commercial officer, said on the earnings call.
The company also has a partnership with Amazon, which offers AMC+ and other targeted streaming services on Prime Video channels, as well as 15 AMC FAST channels.
After launching their own ad-supported tier, Doland said the company plans to do more ad-supported offerings.
“Our presence in FAST, along with the ad-supported version of AMC+ launched last year is helping us navigate the shift from linear and emphasize the importance of cross=platform buying to reach target viewers, We plan to launch ad-supported versions of our other targeted streaming services, starting with Shutter,” Dolan said.
“ I want to say that even in a time of turbulence and uncertainty for many in our industry, we continue to find advantages in our size, independence and standing as one of the last pure play premium programmers,” Dolan said. “We really can work with anyone to reach and serve viewers on our platforms and those of an expanding array of partners that include the likes of Comcast, Charter, Netflix, Amazon, Roku, YouTube, Samsung, Vizio, Philo and so many others. We are nimble, opportunistic, and have reoriented our company for today’s new environment with viewers and high quality content that breaks out and drives popular culture at the center of everything we do. I’m grateful to our people for breaking down the old ways of doing things and adopting a fast, moving and pre thinking mindset more typical of a startup and a legacy media company. This new approach is what this moment in media requires.”