AMC Networks Posts Softer 1Q Revenue
AMC Networks today reported a 6% downturn in revenue during the first quarter due to a slump in advertising and content licensing, but earnings per share beat Wall Street forecasts. Total revenue of $691.7 million fell from $734.4 million in the year-earlier period, missing analysts’ consensus estimate of $722.3 million. Earnings per share, though, topped the Street at $2.02, or $2.98 on an adjusted basis. Analysts on average were expecting $1.87
ATLANTA (AP) — An appeals court has thrown out an $8 million jury verdict awarded to the family of a stuntman who was fatally injured while filming an episode of “The Walking Dead” in 2017. The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled that civil claims brought by the parents of stuntman John Bernecker were barred by […]
AMC Turns Profit As Streaming Subs Top Targets
AMC Networks turned a fourth-quarter profit as its streaming networks exceeded their subscriber targets, but its national cable networks faltered. The company said it has more than 6 million subscribers to its direct-to-consumer services including Acorn TV, Shudder, Sundance Now and AllBlk. Subscriber growth was 157% year over year.
Josh Sapan, who has guided AMC Networks since it was a Cablevision subsidiary known as Rainbow Media a quarter-century ago, has signed a contract renewal to remain its president and CEO for two more years.
AMC Networks Records 15% Decline In National TV Ad Rev
Exclusives
AMC Networks Entertainment Group President Sarah Barnett will be stepping down from her position after Labor Day. Following her departure, the company’s Entertainment Networks, which includes AMC, BBC America, IFC and Sundance TV, and AMC Studios will report to AMC Networks COO Ed Carroll on an interim basis.
The first phases of dynamic, addressable advertising trials include participation from Fox, ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal, Scripps, AMC Networks, Disney Media Networks, Discovery, Hearst Television and WarnerMedia.
Cable networks and streaming company AMC Networks has partnered with the On Addressability initiative, which cable giants Comcast, Charter and Cox launched last summer, to pilot targeted advertising solutions on its linear TV and VOD services.
AMC Networks has opened up an online destination for its advertising business, hoping to connect with clients now that face-to-face meetings are off-limits for the time being.
AMC Networks Entertainment Group has tapped industry veteran Dan McDermott, most recently head of the Lionsgate and BBC Studios scripted TV partnership, as president of original programming and co-president of AMC Studios.
AMC Networks today announced a comprehensive, long-term distribution agreement with Dish Network and Sling TV that includes continued carriage of AMC Networks’ linear channels AMC, BBC America, IFC, SundanceTV, WE tv and BBC World News, as well as the launch in the coming months of AMC Networks’ targeted SVOD services Acorn TV, Shudder, Sundance Now and Urban Movie Channel; AMC Networks’ ad-free offering AMC Premiere; and its IFC Films Unlimited streaming service.
Measurement and analytics company 605 is introducing a platform that will help programmers and advertisers plan, buy, assess and attribute advanced advertising campaigns. AMC Networks and Discovery are the first two programmers to sign up for a pilot test.
A+E Networks, AMC Networks, CBS, Discovery, Fox, NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia and other media publishers double down on addressable TV initiatives ahead of the 2020 upfronts.
AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan saw his 2018 compensation fall 30% from the previous year to $20.5 million. Sapan earned a salary of $2 million and a bonus of $4.6 million, according to AMC Networks’ annual proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
FuboTV is expanding its live TV streaming service to include commercial-free, premium add-ons through new partnerships with AMC Networks’ AMC Premiere and FX Networks’ FX+. With these launches, FuboTV says it’s the first and only virtual MVPD to offer both AMC Premiere and FX+ on its service. FuboTV is one of the first virtual MVPDs […]
The Wall Street Journal reports that people who are tired of paying for TV sports channels they don’t watch will soon have a new option. Cable channels owned by Discovery Communications, Viacom, AMC Networks, A+E Networks and Scripps Networks Interactive will be part of a new streaming service expected to have a “soft launch” in coming weeks, people familiar with the situation say. Subscriptions will cost less than $20 a month. Journal subscribers can read the full story here.
CBS and Fox networks have the best multiyear investor outlook, Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson said in a report for investors today. The report noted that the viewership trends for media companies in the first quarter of 2017 will historically be seen as some of the weakest numbers ever. But the media sector was still “a strong out-performer in the first 100 days of the year,” and MoffettNathanson’s research team raised its EPS estimates for Viacom, 21st Century Fox and Time Warner.
AMC Pitches All 5 Nets, Unified Buying
AMC Networks kicked off its spring ad sales efforts at an event Thursday night in New York that grouped all of its five networks under one upfront umbrella for the first time. They are: AMC, SundanceTV, BBC America, WEtv and IFC. The theme of this upfront was audience engagement and quality content.
AMC Networks’ 3Q Profits Fall 11%
AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan told investors that his company’s channels are “dramatically underpriced” by MVPDs relative to the audience they deliver.
Ad time on A&E was down 10% during the second quarter, while AMC Networks was down 7.4%, Time Warner networks were down 5% and Viacom outlets trimmed 3%, according to Bernstein Research, in its analysis of TiVo Research & Analytics data.
A consortium of small cable companies that represents about four million homes is refusing to pay a demand for what they claim is a tripling of AMC Networks’ fees — and are telling subscribers they can get AMC’s popular The Walking Dead through streaming services.
In a sign of how rapidly the so-called “programmatic TV” marketplace is evolving, one of the medium’s most premium suppliers — AMC Networks — will begin selling some of its television commercial time programmatically. AMCN, the parent of AMC, BBC America, IFC, SundanceTV and WE tv, said it will begin offering a “percentage” of its TV ad inventory to advertisers and agencies that want to buy it programmatically.
AMC Networks Inc., the cable network operator that owns shows including The Walking Dead, is back in talks to acquire billionaire John Malone’s Starz, another TV programmer, according to people familiar with the matter. The preliminary discussions may not result in an acquisition, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information is private. Malone is the largest individual investor in Starz, according to company filings.
AMC Networks has turned The Walking Dead into a bullhorn for airing its grievance with DirecTV. The cabler sounded the alarm during Sunday’s episode that its carriage agreement with the satcaster is due to expire at year’s end — before the zombie drama’s fifth season closer airs next year. The spot did not mention DirecTV by name but it urged concerned viewers to call the 855-KEEPAMC hotline or visit the KeepAMC.com website.
AMC Networks Inc. is buying a 49.9% stake in BBC America for $200 million, the companies announced on Thursday. he deal is structured as a longterm equity joint venture, with BBC Worldwide maintaining the majority 50.1% stake. That said, AMC will have operational control of BBC America, including affiliate and advertising sales.
AMC Networks is closing in on a deal to acquire a sizable stake in BBC America for about $200 million. The deal is expected to come together by the end of October. AMC Networks is believed to be grabbing just under 50% of the channel that is the Beeb’s namesake outpost in the U.S.
