AMC Networks Hires Len Fogge As President Of Marketing, Gives Miquel Penella International Oversight
AMC Networks is making some changes to its senior leadership team. The company has hired Len Fogge to be president of marketing, and is promoting streaming chief Miquel Penella, adding oversight of AMC Networks International in addition to his streaming responsibilities. Both men report to AMC Networks interim CEO Matt Blank.
AMC Networks Tops 4Q Estimates, Passes 9M Streaming Subs
AMC Networks beat Wall Street estimates for the fourth quarter and reported 9 million streaming subscribers as of the end of 2021, in line with company projections. Earnings came in at 54 cents a share on an adjusted, diluted basis, down 80% from the same quarter a year ago but comfortably ahead of forecasts. Revenue inched up 3% to $803.7 million.
Under the continued agreement, AMC Networks’ linear channels — AMC, We TV, BBC America, IFC, and SundanceTV — and streaming service AMC Plus will remain available to Comcast Cable’s Xfinity TV, broadband and XClass customers. Additionally, the pact covers expanded availability of AMC Networks’ other targeted streaming services — Acorn TV, Shudder, Sundance Now, Allblk and the recently acquired Hidive — to Comcast users.
Exclusives
The entertainment company has announced tie-ups with two of the biggest ad-tech companies on the public markets (Magnite and The Trade Desk) that enable programmatic and addressable advertising on linear TV.
Carroll will stay through year’s end. He’s the latest executive to leave the company that is seen as a prime acquisition target at a time of consolidation in media. Carroll oversaw all business operations for the company and in recent years focused on building its portfolio of niche streaming services and the AMC Plus service.
AMC Networks is undergoing a significant changing of the guard, as CEO Josh Sapan has announced he will step down after a 26-year run in the corner office. Former Showtime chief Matt Blank will take over on an interim basis, in a one-year appointment designed to maintain stability during a search for a permanent CEO. Sapan will become executive vice chair of the company as of Sept. 8.
NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS may eventually find themselves on the outside looking in as the subscription streaming video industry continues to grow. That’s according to MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson, who kicked off The StreamTV Show with a forward-looking assessment of which major streamers have the best chance at future success. Assuming that both the Amazon-MGM and Discovery-WarnerMedia deals go through in 2022, he said that the clear winners will be Netflix, Disney, Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery while AMC Networks will have success, albeit on a more niche level.
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
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.
