AMC Networks is preparing to make its big upfront pitch to Madison Avenue on Wednesday, which will dedicate more time to its content lineup than in previous years.
“What we’ve really been seeing over the last several years is the conversation about adtech and innovation and ad products was taking more and more time away from our content showcase,” the network’s chief commercial officer Kim Kelleher told TheWrap. “This year, we kicked off a series of tech breakfasts in February in New York, Chicago and LA. We talked with advertisers who will be in the room for the upfront, but it was much more innovation focused. That’s allowed for a lot more air time for us to do a much bigger content showcase for the larger room at this week’s event.”
AMC Networks typically holds its upfront presentation ahead of the major networks, which present their lineups and ad product offerings in mid-May. In addition to inviting advertisers and their clients, the company will also open up this year’s presentation to its distribution partners.
“We see the convergence that’s happening across the larger industry, where these conversations need not only the programmer and the advertiser, but also the distribution partner on how you’re reaching that audience across all platforms that are being consumed upon,” Kelleher added. “We don’t ever assume everyone watches all of our shows, though we wish they did. The goal of this is to really bring the content to life with many of our shows in an immersive way. We want to make sure that everyone leaves if they haven’t seen our shows wanting to.”
The timing of the TV upfronts comes as President Donald Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs have brought new uncertainty for Hollywood as well as the broader U.S. and global economies. While the tariffs are not expected to directly impact TV shows and movies, they could have an indirect impact in areas such as consumer spending and advertising.
In 2024, AMC Networks’ total ad revenues fell 5.5% year over year to $677 million — accounting for around 28% of its total $2.4 billion in revenue for the year. Domestic ad revenue fell 11% to $520.23 million for the year due to lower linear ratings and a challenging ad market, offset by growth in digital. Prior to the tariff announcement, the company forecast in February that its domestic advertising revenue could fall 10% year over year in 2025.
“Everyone is certainly aware of what’s happening. But advertisers have felt this uncertainty since the pandemic. We have not had a break in five years and it’s been consistent and this is the latest iteration of that uncertainty,” Kelleher said. “But I think it’s pushing advertisers into a more flexible buying environment so they have more optionality. That’s okay with us. We’re there to partner with them through whatever is going to happen. It’s a pretty resilient group of people and we’re just heads down doing what we do best and trying to be the best partners we possibly can. There’s a lot of wait and see.”
Beyond flexibility, advertisers are looking for better audience targeting capabilities and more transparency around their ad buys. To address these issues, AMC launched a platform called Audience+ in 2023, which provides advertisers with first party data insights around who’s watching its content, what they’re watching and where they’re watching.
“We’ve been very focused on making sure that an advertiser can come in and target one audience and be able to buy linear, streaming and CTV all at the same time and we’re very much believers in convergence,” said Evan Adlman, AMC Networks’ commercial sales and revenue operations. “Everything that we do is to meet the buyer where they are. What we’re really pushing for is cross-platform buying.”
While acknowledging the flood of ad inventory from new ad-supported offerings launched by Netflix and Prime Video have weighed on pricing, AMC executives argued that their programmatic advertising approach and content strategy are keeping things stable.
“Price pressure with a flood of inventory and this always-on viewership model is real. That being said I do think our strategy and growing audience continues to mitigate that,” Kelleher said. “So it’s very important we continue to grow our audience, the number of platforms and partnerships and our distribution footprint that we have to help mitigate any kind of fluctuation in pricing driven by too much supply.”
In September 2023, AMC Networks joined the rest of the streaming competition, launching an ad-supported AMC+ tier for $4.99 per month. It will next introduce ads on its horror, thriller and super natural fiction-focused service, Shudder, later this year.
As of the end of 2024, AMC Networks reported a total of 12.4 million streaming subscribers across its six platforms — AMC+, Shudder, Acorn TV, Sundance Now, ALLBLK and HIDIVE — marking growth of 8% year over year. The company does not break out its total subscribers by service, nor did the executives reveal how many of its AMC+ subscribers are on ad-supported plans.
Kelleher, who acknowledged being late to the game on ad-supported streaming, said the decision to introduce ads was about being a utility for distribution partners like Amazon and Roku and giving consumers more affordable options rather than being a “financial engine” for the company.
“We’re not something for everyone, we’re everything to someone and that’s really been our focus for a long time,” Kelleher said. “We know our genres and our audiences very well and we really try to super serve just that. We’re not trying to reach every single person in the household, we’re trying to reach that passionate fan.”
She added that AMC’s content strategy is focused on breaking the walled garden surrounding its movies and shows down and bringing them to audiences wherever they are.
“What we’ve gotten over is telling people exactly how to watch and where to watch and when to watch. That ship has sailed for the larger industry outside of live events or very specific moments. So we’re very committed to making sure our content is everywhere people want to watch it when they want it on any device at any time,” she continued. “As a programmer, we just want people to watch our shows. It’s our problem to figure out the monetization on the backend of that, whether it’s partner monetization or a direct to consumer relationship, but we’re not as bespoke about only doing it this way, and that’s a pretty big difference with our company to other players in this.”
Last year, AMC decided to license early seasons of 13 of its series to Netflix for one year as part of an experiment, including “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon,” “Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire,” “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches,” “Monsieur Spade,” “That Dirty Black Bag” and “The Terror,” “A Discovery of Witches” “Dark Winds” “Fear the Walking Dead”, “Gangs of London”, “Into the Badlands”, “Kevin Can F*** Himself” and “Preacher.”
The partnership has not only helped market those franchises, but also drove them back to AMC’s various platforms to watch the latest seasons after they catch up with a binge on Netflix, Kelleher said. Per Adlman, the company reaches a combined 110 million monthly active users across linear, streaming and CTV.
“We’re about seven months in. It would be fair to say both sides have learned a lot. This is the first time they’ve done that. It was the first time we’ve done that, and we are tweaking it, but we’re in conversations about an ongoing relationship in this way,” Kelleher added. “We very thoughtfully chose the shows and the seasons of the shows and we’re having serious conversations about the scheduling and drop timing of the shows.”
Chief Marketing Officer Kim Granito said that “The Walking Dead: Dead City” and “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” have both been embraced by the fandom on Netflix, with the former appearing in the streamer’s Top 10 list.
Kelleher noted that putting the franchise on Netflix has “brought a pipeline of younger audiences” as it gears up to celebrate the 15th anniversary of “The Walking Dead” this October.
“This is a huge global franchise. We have viewers all over the world,” she added. “It’s massive and I don’t think we’re anywhere near the peak of our audience.”
AMC also has a content sharing partnership with MGM+. Kelleher said that “Daryl Dixon” Season 1 resonated well with the latter’s viewership and “From” resonated with AMC+ subscribers.
In addition to leveraging content licensing and bundling, AMC Networks has 19 FAST channels with over 140 feeds across 11 platforms, which it uses to sample early seasons of its content in the hopes of driving audiences back to its paid streaming platforms. Its services are also being made available through distribution partnerships with content aggregators like Prime Video Channels and Roku.
“We’re on the cutting edge of experimenting in these ways and we can always walk away if they’re not working. But so far, we’ve been learning a lot and things have been working,” she added.
