Please wait...
Please wait...

AMC Networks adds 100k D2C subs, execs tout ‘successful experiment’ with Max

AMC Networks’ streaming business returned to subscriber growth in the third quarter with 100,000 new additions following losses in the two prior quarters.

Kristin Dolan

Across its portfolio of direct-to-consumer (D2C) services, the New York-headquartered company now has around 11.1 million paid subscribers.

The subscriber sign-ups helped push streaming revenue up 9% to US$142m in the third quarter compared to the previous year.

Across the whole company, revenue was down 6.6% in the quarter to US$637m, which it said was the result of lower domestic advertising and affiliate revenues.

AMC Networks’ portfolio of cable channels and digital services includes AMC, IFC and Sundance TV, and streamers AMC+, Acorn TV and Shudder.

Like many of its peers, AMC Networks’ original projections around subscriber acquisition have proved hard to achieve. The company initially said it expected to have between 20 million and 25 million streaming subscribers by 2025 but, as the market has evolved, it has shifted its focus to profitability and increasing the average revenue per subscriber, in addition to reducing spending on originals. It also recently launched an ad-supported tier on AMC+ in the US.

After withholding some of its original content to stream exclusively on AMC+, the company has also put greater focus on licensing and partnerships since the turn of the year.

One such collaboration saw seven AMC+ and AMC original series including Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire and Dark Winds stream co-exclusively on Max in the US as part of a two-month deal with Warner Bros Discovery in September and October.

During the company’s third-quarter earnings call, AMC Networks CEO Kristin Dolan said the content business is “undergoing a period of experimentation and innovation” that is seeing new collaborations being formed with companies that “until recently could have been viewed as competitors.”

“This successful experiment just concluded and it was affirming to see titles like A Discovery of Witches, Fear the Walking Dead, Dark Winds and Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire consistently occupying multiple slots on Max’s daily top 10 series list,” said Dolan.

The exposure on Max had the intended effect of increasing viewership of those same titles on AMC+, said Dolan, who expressed an interest in doing more partnerships in that vein.

“We’re nimble, adaptable, affordable and very much complementary to other offerings,” she said. “Given these attributes and the success we saw through working with Max, I would say it’s likely we will find imaginative new ways to work with other programmers in the future.”

Please wait...