AMC Networks, the cable networks and streaming company that operates the likes of AMC, AMC+, IFC, BBC America, Acorn TV and Shudder, reported its U.S. advertising revenue grew slightly in the first quarter and said it added streaming subscribers in the period to end March with 9.5 million after closing out 2021 with more than 9 million.
Earlier in the year, it had forecast it would add around 400,000 streaming subscriber additions during the opening quarter of 2022 as it began to offer quarterly guidance on its streaming business. Among the company’s key content launches in the first quarter was the final season of Killing Eve.
AMC, led by interim CEO Matt Blank, posted its first-quarter results before the market open on Thursday. Like its peers, the company has accelerated its shift to streaming, but has focused on various niche and genre streamers, such as horror service Shudder, touting them as less capital intensive than broad entertainment streaming services.
“The targeted streaming business is a less speculative, less costly, and a more sustainable model for the company relative to larger general entertainment peers,” Guggenheim analyst Michael Morris, who has a “neutral” rating on AMC Networks shares, wrote in a late February report. “Expansion continues to be done with the business generating positive operating profit.”
AMC Networks named former Showtime Networks chief Matthew Blank its interim CEO in late August, picking him to take over from company veteran Josh Sapan who moved into the vice chair role. In February, Blank had said: “2022 will be the biggest year for original content in our history, including the highly-anticipated returns of Better Call Saul and Killing Eve.”
AMC’s portfolio of streamers also includes premium bundle AMC+, the Black series and film destination ALLBLK, formerly called UMC, art house-focused Sundance Now and movie service IFC Films Unlimited.
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