#AMC Networks U.S. Ad Revenue Drops 18 Percent, Streaming Subs Hit 11.1M in Return to Growth

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 Shudder — reported an 18 percent drop in third-quarter U.S. advertising revenue on Friday, but returned to streaming subscriber growth.

Advertising revenue fell to $147 million due to “anticipated linear ratings declines, a challenging ad market and fewer original programming episodes within the quarter, partly offset by digital and advanced advertising revenue growth,” the company said.

The latest quarterly U.S. ad revenue update followed a second-quarter drop of 17 percent and a first-quarter decrease of 20 percent. The company’s original series in the third quarter included episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and The Walking Dead: Dead City.

The firm, led by CEO Kristin Dolan, also disclosed on Friday that its streaming subscribers grew by 100,000 to 11.1 million as of the end of September from 11.0 million as of the end of the second quarter, returning to growth after recent declines. That marked a 1 percent improvement over the second quarter of 2023 and a 4 percent gain over the year-ago sub count.

In its first-quarter earnings update, the company had reported a decline from 11.8 million as of the end of 2022 to 11.5 million as of the end of March. The company explained the reason for the different first-quarter figure mentioned this way: “In the second quarter, we updated our subscriber definition to no longer include estimated subscriber conversions. This definitional change resulted in the removal of approximately 300,000 subscribers from our quarter-end subscriber count.” Compared to the updated first-quarter 2023 subscriber figure of 11.2 million, “second-quarter subscribers sequentially decreased 2 percent, reflecting our continued focus on higher value subscribers and promotional roll-off,” the company also explained.

Management had previously mentioned that subscribers for the firm’s collection of niche-oriented streamers would reach 20 million to 25 million by 2025. 

AMC Networks said that in the third quarter it also “substantially completed” a restructuring plan started last November “designed to achieve significant cost reductions in light of ‘cord cutting’ and the related impacts being felt across the media industry as well as the broader economic outlook.” In the third quarter, the company “exited a portion of its office space in its corporate headquarters in New York and office space in Silver Spring, Maryland and Woodland Hills, California.” In connection with exiting a portion of its New York office, the firm recorded impairment charges of $11.6 million.

Kristin Dolan, the wife of chairman James Dolan, took over the CEO role at AMC Networks at the end of February.

In Friday’s earnings update, she said: “During this period of experimentation and change in our industry, we continue to execute on our plan and effectively manage the business with a focus on high-quality programming, strong partnerships and profitability. In addition to introducing an ad-supported version of AMC+, we extended our leadership in TV advertising through the launch of programmatic buying on our linear networks, an industry first.”