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Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Q1 2025 AMC Networks Inc Earnings Call
Nicholas Seibert; Vice President - Corporate Development, Investor Relations; AMC Networks Inc Kristin Dolan; Chief Executive Officer; AMC Networks Inc Patrick O Connell; Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President; AMC Networks Inc Kim Kelleher; Chief Commercial Officer; AMC Networks Inc Thomas Yeh; Analyst; Morgan Stanley David Joyce; Analyst; Seaport Research Partners Steven Cahall; Analyst; Wells Fargo Operator Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the AMC Network's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Nick Seibert, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor relations. Please go ahead. Nicholas Seibert Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the AMC Network's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Joining us this morning are Kristin Dolan, Chief Executive Officer; Patrick O'Connell, Chief Financial Officer; Kim Kelleher, Chief Commercial Officer; and Dan McDermott, President of Entertainment and AMC Studios. Today's press release is available on our website at We will begin with prepared remarks and then we'll open the call for questions. Today's call may include certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. Please refer to AMC Network's SEC filings for a discussion of risks and uncertainties. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements made on this call today. We will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. The required definitions and reconciliations can be found in today's press release, and with that I'd like to turn the call over to Kristin. Kristin Dolan Thanks, Nick. Good morning, everyone. It was 18 months ago on this call that we first talked about programming, partnerships, and profitability as our three major areas of focus in running this business. Since then, I've been proud of our performance overall and particularly in these three categories, especially in a time of uncertainty and change. Every media company today is trying to find its own path forward in a world that is increasingly complex. Our path is focused on the clear advantages we have in this moment and in the future. We make great shows. We're nimble and independent with the freedom to experiment and evolve, and our strong, distinct brands are home to some of the most passionate fandoms in entertainment. Our continued focus on profitability is driven by the strategic and disciplined steps we've taken to reimagine this company while prioritizing the generation of free cash flow. As a reminder, last quarter, we revised our two year cumulative free cash flow guidance upward to $550 million over the '24-'25 period. I'm pleased to report that we're off to a strong start this year, generating $94 million in free cash flow in the quarter. In terms of distribution, we believe our strategic advantages in this or any environment are that we are fast moving, opportunistic, and able to deliver products that create value for our company, as well as for our partners. For example, we developed an ad supported version of AMC+ in part to give our partners additional flexibility in how their customers connect to our high quality programming. That product is now part of our long-term affiliation agreement with Charter, serving both their desire to bundle streaming value into their existing video service and our own goal of expanding access to our shows and films. We're already seeing an excellent response to AMC+ from Charter subscribers as we did when we launched an integrated version of AMC+ on Philo last year. We continue to meet advertiser demand for our programming and brands, while also making our services available to the broadest possible audience. As previously announced later this year, we will be launching an ad-supported version of Shudder, the world's best service for horror fans. We're also launching a new fast channel, Acorn TV Mysteries, to drive interest and awareness in this beloved streaming service focused on thrilling mysteries and crime dramas from around the world. This fast channel will raise the visibility of the Acorn streaming service, promote sampling of our content, and for the first time, give the advertisers early access to Acorn's loyal and highly engaged audience. We've made significant progress in partnership with Comcast Technology Solutions to standardize and modernize the back end support for our content distribution. This important and ongoing work will support our goal of meeting viewers wherever they are, while accelerating our time to market, enhancing cost predictability, and ensuring we are supported by the most advanced, efficient technologies available. On the topic of partnerships, I do want to mention our recent upfront content showcase in New York. This year, we expanded the event to include our most important partners across advertising, distribution, and technology, giving them exposure to the great slate of content we will be releasing in the coming months. It was a meaningful moment for the company and an approach we plan to continue in the years ahead. In our upfront conversations, we're seeing strong interest in the new AMCN outcomes attribution product and have added new data sources that expand the categories of advertisers who can benefit from this technology. We've also announced several exciting new integrated marketing offers, including an innovative branding opportunity with Sphere as part of our annual FearFest programming event. I'll end with our high quality premium programming and the vibrant franchises that drive everything we do, particularly as a company with a studio able to create lasting value by developing, owning, and distributing distinctive IP. This quarter we saw the celebrated series Dark Winds return for a third season, once again earning high praise from critics and fans. The series delivered a premiere night audience of approximately 2.2 million viewers, with direct to consumer acquisition on AMC+ up significantly from the prior season. The show has the incredibly rare distinction of a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes for all three seasons. Dark Winds is currently in production on Season 4, and we see a very long life for this series that has become a franchise unto itself, led by star and executive producer Zahn McClarnon, who is already generating Emmy buzz. Just last week, The Walking Dead: Dead City returned for its second season with an international promotional push that generated significant attention and delighted the active and engaged fans of this franchise. AMC+ saw its biggest single day of direct to consumer subscriber acquisition since last year's Season 2 premiere of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Later this year, Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride will return for a third season of Darryl. Also along the way this year is an important expansion of our Anne Rice's Immortal Universe. A third series will feature the Talamasca, a secretive organization that has been present in both Interview with the Vampire and Mayfair Witches. Talamasca: The Secret Order will serve as a bit of a through line connecting all three shows, while being bold and distinctive in its own right. Interview and Mayfair are preparing third seasons that will take the storytelling in exciting new directions next year. We recently announced a new franchise and development called Great American Stories. Each season of this anthology series will be devoted to a different classic novel, play, or moment in history that is distinctly American. We're planning a first season around the Grapes of Wrath, the John Steinbeck classic that is as timely and relevant today as when it was published in 1939. More to come on this exciting concept, which has already generated strong interest in the creative community. We're currently in production on a new series called The Audacity from talented writer Jonathan Glatzer that we'll bring to viewers next year. This series set in Silicon Valley has a stellar cast led by Billy Magnussen, and including Sarah Goldberg, Simon Helberg, Rob Corddry, and the unique talent that is Zach Galifianakis. Our targeted streaming services, which are built to super serve fans of specific programming genres for a reasonable price, remain a strong differentiator for us. Acorn TV, the home of thrilling crime dramas and engaging mysteries, has new shows on the way from beloved stars Alicia Silverstone and Brooke Shields, along with an expanding slate of returning originals. Last week we launched a new monthlong programming event on Acorn called Murder Mystery May. Similar to AMC's popular and long-running FearFest, this event offers Acorn's loyal fans a packed month of new shows and continuing franchises like Harry Wilde, Murdoch Mysteries, The Brokenwood Mysteries, and many more. Shudder continues to cement its reputation as the premier service for horror fans. Later this year, we will debut a new competition reality show from Greg Nicotero called Guts & Glory, shot on the set of The Walking Dead in the woods of Georgia. I also want to call out Wii TV, which continues to serve up some of the most entertaining and conversation sparking franchises on television. The success of Love After Lock Up helped make Wii TV a top cable network with women on Friday nights and is enormously popular on streaming, in CTV and fast. Everywhere we have aired this real-life prison and relationship drama. Mama June delivers viewers season after season, and relative newcomer Toya & Reginae has also become a breakout hit, returning for its second season in the quarter and growing viewers in key demos from Season 1. Our film group, which is seeing significant success across theaters, EST, and our own streaming platforms, just rebranded under a new name, IFC Entertainment Group. This banner includes the independent film company, IFC Center, RLJ Films, and Shudder. Our newest release, Clown in a Cornfield, is already generating significant buzz from horror fans and premieres tonight in theaters. This is just a snapshot of what we're doing in programming, furthering the vibrant franchises we are building and level of creative talent with whom we work. We're proud of our continued strong commitment to quality and of the kinds of shows and stories we're bringing to fans, even during a time of change and transformation in our industry. I want to thank you all for your time this morning and for your continued interest in AMC Networks. Now, I'll turn the call over to Patrick for a more detailed look at our financial results. Patrick O Connell Thank you, Kristin. As a nimble and innovative premium programmer, we continue to focus on what is in our control amidst continuing linear headwinds and recent macroeconomic uncertainty. This includes the reorientation of our business around free cash generation, investing in our valuable and sought after IP and franchise expansion, and maintaining flexibility across the operating business and the capital structure. We are pleased with our first quarter results, particularly regarding free cash flow, which was $94 million in the quarter. We remain solidly on track to achieve our outlook of approximately $220 million of free cash flow for the full year. Consolidated net revenue declined 7% year over year to $555 million. Consolidated AOI declined 30% to $104 million with a 19% margin. Adjusted EPS was $0.52. I'll now discuss our segment results. Domestic operations revenue decreased 7% to $486 million. Subscription revenue decreased 3% due to a 12% decline in affiliate revenue and was partly offset by streaming revenue growth of 8%. With the launch of ads supported AMC+ on Charter at the end of March, we felt it was important to refine certain aspects of our streaming subscriber and subscription revenue definitions. Therefore, customers who receive our services as part of a video package that also includes our linear networks are no longer included in our streaming subscriber count. This includes Charter Spectrum TV Select and Philo customers who would have been counted as subscribers under our prior definition. While these customers will no longer be included in our streaming subscriber account, they are important to us as we employ our partner focused distribution strategy. We expect to provide further updates over time regarding the trending of these customers to ensure a holistic picture of AMC's programming distribution. Recast historical streaming subscribers can be found in the earnings release we issued today. Regarding revenue, to ensure consistency, we've made commensurate changes to our affiliate and streaming revenue definitions. Our affiliate revenue component now includes revenue from distributors that provide their customers access to our streaming services through a video package that also includes our linear networks. Our streaming revenue component is now entirely composed of a-la-carte subscription streaming revenue. The impact of prior period streaming and affiliate revenue is not material. These definitional refinements better reflect how our networks and services are typically sold to our affiliate partners on a package basis as part of an affiliation agreement and more importantly provide a clean apples-to-apples comparison of our high value intent driven streaming subscriber base to our reported streaming revenue. In terms of streaming subscribers for the quarter under our new subscriber definition, we ended the quarter with 10.2 million streaming subscribers, flat as compared to the prior year. Subscribers declined slightly as compared to 10.4 million subscribers at the end of 2024. The sequential decrease reflects our continued focus on higher quality subscribers, which was realized through the implementation of tighter credit standards for new sign-ups across our D2C and partner acquisition funnels, as well as the timing and cadence of our content slate and subscriber acquisition marketing. We are already seeing the benefits of the further strengthening of our subscriber base with strong retention and engagement across the portfolio. In the first quarter we saw a year-over-year improvement in retention, and in terms of engagement we saw a sequential double-digit increase in viewership hours per subscriber. We're pleased with the diet that our services continue to offer and we successfully implemented rate initiatives at AMC+ and All Black in the quarter. In April we implemented a $2 rate of Shudder and we will implement a $1 increase at both acorn and high dive in the second and third quarters respectively. We expect streaming revenue growth to accelerate as the year progresses and as the benefits of rate activity, new series debuts, and opportunistic acquisition and retention marketing compound. Moving to domestic operations advertising revenue. Advertising revenue decreased 15% year by year, primarily due to lower linear ratings. We are part of the same challenging ad markets as everyone else, but we remain encouraged by the strength of our programming and our significant advanced and digital advertising capabilities. While there's been a recent uptick in macroeconomic uncertainty broadly, we remain highly engaged with our advertising partners, and we are not seeing meaningful indicators that suggest a material pullback. Content licensing revenue was $54 million for the quarter, reflecting the timing and availability of deliveries in the period. Licensing revenues are often lumpy due to the timing of new deals and delivery schedules. And as a reminder, we continue to anticipate approximately $250 million of domestic operations content licensing revenue for the full year. Domestic operations AOI was $124 million for the quarter, representing a decrease of 24%. The decrease in AOI was largely driven by the continued linear revenue headwinds, increased SG&A, including marketing expenses, and partly offset by lower programming expense. Moving to an international segment. First quarter international revenue of $70 million decreased 7%. Subscription revenue decreased 12% due to the non-renewal with Movistar in Spain that occurred in the fourth quarter of 2024. Advertising revenue increased 5% due to increased ratings and digital and advanced advertising growth in the UK, partly offset by lower advertising revenues across our other European markets. International AOI for the first quarter decreased 26% to $10 million with a 14% margin. The decrease in AI AOI was largely attributable to lower subscription revenue. Moving to the balance sheet. We remain focused on our balance sheet. We ended the quarter with net debt of $1.5 billion and a consolidated net leverage ratio of 2.9 times. We have no bond maturities until 2029, a healthy cash position, and more than $1 billion of total liquidity. We appreciate the flexibility and optionality of our meaningful cash balance. We continue to believe that our securities will present attractive opportunities for us to deploy cash optimistically across the capital structure to create equity value. In April we capitalized on volatility in the capital markets through open market repurchases of our 4.25% senior unsecured notes due 2029. We repurchased $32 million of bonds for approximately $23 million or roughly 71% of face value and captured approximately $9 million of discount. Our capital allocation philosophy remains prudent and optimistic. First, we look to support the business by creating and acquiring compelling programming that resonates with our audiences, while maintaining healthy levels of cash flow generation. Second, we remain focused on continually improving our balance sheet by reducing gross debt and optimizing our capital structure. Lastly, M&A, share repurchases, and dividends remain further down our priority list. I'll now summarize and reiterate our 2025 outlook. We continue to expect free cash flow of approximately $220 million consolidated revenue of approximately $2.3 billion, reflecting continued linear headwinds partially offset by profitable streaming and digital growth, and consolidated AOI in the range of $400 million to $420 million. We continue to anticipate year to year increase in technical and operating expenses, including approximately $10 million of expenses related to our technology outsourcing transformation, as well as increased SG&A expenses driven by streaming-related marketing. We acknowledge that a lot has changed in the few short months since we issued our 2025 outlook. It's still early in the year, and the geography of certain revenue and expense items may shift as the year progresses. From where we sit, we haven't seen anything suggesting any meaningful impacts for our business, but we remain vigilant. We are well-capitalized with a large cash balance and no immediate financing needs. We continue to take a long range view of the business and are managing AMC networks with a clear strategic plan centered around programming, partnerships, and profitability. At the same time, we are nimble and adaptable when and where we need to be. With that operator, please open the line for questions. Operator (Operator Instructions) Thomas Yeh, Morgan Stanley. Thomas Yeh Can you tell us a bit more about the streaming subscribers coming in through the bundled video packages? What's the uptake so far on Spectrum TV and are you seeing any risk of cannibalization on the a-la-carte side and that may be just a clarification on the affiliate revenues. Is it a variable, a source of revenues based on a sign up, any color there that would be helpful. Kristin Dolan I'll take the first one. Thomas, good morning. So on the streaming front, actually we're very happy with the way things are going with Charter and as we've spoken about in the past, our integration with Philo last year and so, Charter has a good sense of what they anticipate the take rates and importantly, the authentication for anybody that has access to the embedded streaming services within their platform. And so we're tracking exactly where we want it to be so we're really happy with that, as are they. To your second question, Patrick is there. Patrick O Connell Yeah, specifically on cannibalization, Thomas, I would say listen, we are taking -- we are small and obviously we are taking a partner approach to our distribution. That means through existing partners and new partners. Obviously we've got long standing relationships with Charter, Comcast, Dish, DirecTV, etc. All of our traditional NPD distributors, and we see incredible value and thus expanding the distribution of our of our content. We think this is going to create a much healthier video ecosystem. You could go so far as to say we're sort of, kind of Charter members of Charter's vision for an improved video ecosystem. We think this will improve the video experience for customers broadly. We think it will help distribution partners as well in terms of packaging broadband or wireless with value enhanced video offerings, and we think it creates just a healthier programming distribution ecosystem more broadly. We actually think that over time this is going to present additional revenue opportunities for the company in the form of upselling, customers from an ad supported product to a premium product. We think it'll generate additional viewership and engagement, of which we can drive additional advertising revenue. And we think it'll also get in sort of success and healthier ecosystem and slightly reduced cord cutting will create a more solid foundation of sort of going forward as well. So we're taking a long term view here, but we think there's a ton of upside in this strategy. Yeah, on the third part of your question there in terms of like the nature of the economics, I would say this is a really fluid environment we're operating in, right. We've signed a couple of these deals. Each one is a bit different, each one is a bit bespoke, so I don't think it's worth getting into sort of the microeconomics of each specific deal. Suffice to say that we wanted to make sure that we were very clear in terms of, streaming revenue being driven by our new streaming, subscriber definition. And so that should make comparisons, I think, more valuable in terms of, ARPU, churn, etc. So you'll have sort of clean numbers going forward. Thomas Yeh Got it. That's helpful. And then maybe just the last one, Patrick, you mentioned no meaningful indicators yet on the macro related concerns for the ad market. Can you maybe just help us think through the year-over-year comparisons on ad declines to the balance of the year of their, potential incremental tails from some of the factors that you just mentioned as an offset to some of the linear declines. Patrick O Connell Yeah, sure. I mean, listen, Thomas, maybe what I'll do is I'll start with, kind of our initial expectations for the year and sort of juxtapose kind of Q1 performance versus that I'll break out sort of linear and digital, I think that would be sort of the way to attack this. I think, listen, that the linear market remains challenged, right? That's sort of well understood. Our performance on linear is almost entirely a function of the ratings environment. That is a very similar dynamic to last year in terms of the split between ratings and what we call kind of marketplace or pricing. That's been consistent on the linear side year over year and in fact in Q1 linear was frankly a little bit stronger than we had. Obviously overall domestic advertising revenue was down 15%. I would say the underperformance there was just a soft on the digital side. We're seeing the exact same trends as everyone else in terms of a lot more additional supply in the market, kind of putting pressure on price, putting pressure on fill rates as well. So that was sort of the underperformance that we noted in the quarter. As far as the balance of the year goes, listen, it's a fluid market. These dollars, especially on the digital side, they move fast. They can come in, they can come out. We're really pleased with the reception that our programming has received in the market. Most recently at our upfront that continues to resonate. We hear from partners on a daily basis and so we feel that with the tools that we've given our partners in terms of kind of attribution and whatnot, we will be well-positioned to attack this market going forward. Operator David Joyce, Seaport Research Partners. David Joyce Thank you, I guess, just a couple more add-ons there. I was just wondering how much of your advertising is coming from streaming at this point, given that, that's where some of the pressures are, it's still in the like the low single digits portion of your advertising, and I was wondering on the international side, when you would be lapping the subscription revenue issues from the Spanish drop. Kim Kelleher David, it's Kim. I'll take your first question on the streaming advertising. It delivers incremental overall revenue to our pool. However, it does give us -- because of our genre-based services, it gives us a great opportunity on the sponsorship side for integrated partnerships and an opportunity for marketers to really actually heavy hit the tip of the spear of the horror fans and with the Shudder launch and with our AMC franchises. So it's part of an overall mix that drives actually significant dollars for the company overall. Kristin Dolan It's Kristin. I'll take the international question. So with Movistar, not dissimilar to BT in the UK a couple of years ago, they've completely changed their strategy and as of last fall said they no longer wanted to carry any linear services. So similar to BT, we were probably one of the last ones that they had maintained. There's been some significant shifts in their senior leadership over the past month or so, and we continue to speak with them. But at the same time, our growth in the Spanish market with other partners has been significant, and so we anticipated this change. We have plans in place to offset the revenue changes there and we're optimistic that we may have a different relationship with Movistar going forward. Patrick O Connell And then just to add on that on your financial question there, that happened at the end of the year 2024, so it's sort of a clean comp in terms of you're looking at year over year, number one, number two, this was built into our guidance, so it's not a change in terms of how we're kind of attacking the year. David Joyce Understood. And if I could just ask about the seasonality this year, any comparison challenges or benefits based on new originals coming on the impact of revenue or the cost side of things? Patrick O Connell Yeah, David, I'd call out one. I wouldn't call it seasonality. I'd call it more just kind of cash flow dynamics in terms of the production schedule. You will have noted the very healthy free cash flow generation in Q1. I think the free cash flow generation is going to be kind of front loaded this year towards the first half, partly because we've got more production lined up in the in the back half. And in terms of the specific working capital dynamics, obviously there's some additional headwinds kind of below the line from increased interest expense. We don't have the tax benefits that we recognized in the first half of last year. Those have been mostly offset by working capital kind of grab backs or good guys we've been able to find this year. So that's the only, I think kind of noteworthy seasonality aspect to the you know kind of the income statement I think it's worth calling out at this point. Operator (Operator Instructions) Steven Cahall, Wells Fargo. Steven Cahall First, Patrick, maybe to just follow-up on some of the seasonality questions. So I think revenue in Q1 was down a little weaker than what you've guided to for the year. Where do you expect that revenue acceleration to come from as we get through the balance of the year? Is that from streaming as you start to put through some of those price actions that you talked about? Is it some of the lumpiness to the content schedule for advertising? So just helping us maybe shape the year on rev revenue a little bit. And then I'd love to revisit the ad market. I think what we've heard kind of to sum up from the peer group this week is that there's definitely some of that digital weakness, tough to tell what's going to happen in in linear, some caution, but as you say, kind of not downright challenges quite yet. I guess following up, how much of the business do you think is exposed to some of these digital trends and as you start to get into the upfront, do you think you can firm up some of the linear stuff to offset that? We just have to kind of get a sense of how you broadly think about your advertising revenue growth expectations for the year versus maybe where you started last quarter. Patrick O Connell Steven, it's Patrick. I'll take the first and Kim will take the second. In terms of the cadence of the revenue of the balance of the year, you've effectively answered your own question, which is with the price increases we've put through on the streaming side in Q1, and we've got a couple more price actions to take in Q2 and Q3, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, that's going to compound over time. And so you'll see an acceleration of streaming revenue growth throughout the year. The streaming revenue growth that we articulated as part of the guidance was largely predicated on pricing as opposed to volume. I was looking to grow both, but it was more pricing heavy. And to date, the pricing actions we've put through have taken extraordinarily well. So in line with expectations, we feel really good about that. And then the second piece of the equation is obviously content licensing. It was a little bit lighter this quarter. We had frankly, a large deal moved from Q1 to Q2, so you'll see that kind of rebound over the balance of the year. I wouldn't call it seasonality as much as I would just call it's just the nature of the content licensing beast, but I think those are the two factors I'd call out in terms of the revenue acceleration over the balance of the year. Kim Kelleher Hi Steven, I would definitely agree with our peer group in expressing that uncertainty in the marketplace. It is here, but it is not new. We've all been navigating these uncertain times since the pandemic. I feel like specific to your questions, we have a highly trained sales organization at AMC that's in place to navigate these changes and fluctuations in an ongoing way. As Patrick mentioned, we're seeing real strength in our direct sales and our programmatic sold business Q1 specifically, but that influx of supply is putting pressure on price for the marketplace overall. We're feeling very confident about our premium content, the shows that are coming, our advanced advertising capabilities that we've worked on for the last four years in earnest, and that continues to separate us from the crowded market and it's delivering very unique value to our advertising customers. I think our goal is to focus on our viewers first strategy, which is to make sure our viewers can watch our content wherever and whenever they want on any device at any time. So from this vantage point, I would say the increase in the inventory is actually a good thing, showing viewership shifts into areas like FAST and AVOD, areas that we fully embraced as a company from a distribution standpoint. I think the only other thing I'd just say is we're -- the impact of what we're seeing is something we're really trying to insulate ourselves against, and we're working very closely with our television distribution partners on making more and more of our linear inventory DAI enabled, which means digitally enabled, which actually this growth allows us to continue to let our content scale and digitally monetize against what has traditionally been a linear monetization environment. So we're sticking to the plan and anticipate being able to navigate this bumpiness. Kristin Dolan And maybe just to take it up for a macros here or two macro level, Steven for a second is like just to reiterate you know this. Our streaming products are profitable and to Kim's point about digital, we go through it a lot, but people don't always remember, we have 19 fast channels, 136 feeds on 12 different platforms. So if you integrate that with the existing ads supported streaming services in AMC+ and soon Shudder and the others following behind that, we just keep expanding our capacity. For digital advertising and then we couple that with the technological advances that we have to do both digital insertion on linear and then integrated selling of segments across all of these 136 instances of our products in a digital format. So it's all coming together which helps us, I think, sustain our momentum when the marketplace gets a little chunky like it is right now. Steven Cahall Thanks for all that and maybe just a quick follow-up in case I missed this. Did you talk about what you expect content spend and content amortization to be this year? That'd be helpful to understand too. Thanks. Patrick O Connell Hey Steven, it's Patrick. Please report there's no change from, kind of what we've been articulating in the past, which is immunization is going to be probably slightly lower year over year. Cash content spends also going to be down kind of slightly, I would say, but important to note there that the volume of productions are staying reasonably flat year by year in terms of the number of episodes that we're producing across our platforms. We've shifted the mix a little bit and we're trying to program them as efficiently as possible, obviously. But there's been no change in the volume of production or the expectations around our cash costs this year or. Kristin Dolan The quality. I just want to reiterate, a show like Dark Winds, which is extremely efficient in the amount of money that we spend per episode continues. We're so proud of the Rotten Tomatoes 100%, all three seasons, the lift that we got. AMC+ this year for the Season 3 premiere and just the overall awareness and interest in that series and then the continued interest in The Walking Dead and we're excited for next quarter to give you some updates on how Dead City Season 2 went and then we're looking forward to the next season of Daryl Dixon with The Walking Dead. But the unscripted, also, as we mentioned in the comments, the unscripted continues to perform really well, in addition, and everybody knows that's less expensive programming too, but the edict from above, which has been in place for forever, is we can never sacrifice the quality of what we create for any business situation. And thankfully, Dan and the team continue to produce amazing content that is well-received at a very reasonable price, so it's a big piece of our success. Operator Thank you. And I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back to Nick for closing remarks. Nicholas Seibert Thank you for joining us today. Have a good day. Operator And thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AMC Networks (NASDAQ:AMCX) Misses Q1 Sales Targets
Television broadcasting and production company AMC Networks (NASDAQ:AMCX) fell short of the market's revenue expectations in Q1 CY2025, with sales falling 6.9% year on year to $555.2 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.52 per share was 35.5% below analysts' consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy AMC Networks? Find out in our full research report. Revenue: $555.2 million vs analyst estimates of $570.3 million (6.9% year-on-year decline, 2.6% miss) Adjusted EPS: $0.52 vs analyst expectations of $0.81 (35.5% miss) Adjusted EBITDA: $90.88 million vs analyst estimates of $100.9 million (16.4% margin, 9.9% miss) Operating Margin: 11.6%, down from 18.5% in the same quarter last year Free Cash Flow Margin: 17%, down from 24.2% in the same quarter last year Market Capitalization: $278 million Chief Executive Officer Kristin Dolan said: "We continue to execute on our core strengths as we navigate the changing world of media. During the first quarter we delivered high-quality premium programming to our audiences, launched ad-supported AMC+ on Charter and generated $94 million of free cash flow.(1) We remain nimble and opportunistic in broadly distributing our sought-after content across all available platforms to build value for our partners, viewers and shareholders." Originally the joint-venture of four cable television companies, AMC Networks (NASDAQ:AMCX) is a broadcaster producing a diverse range of television shows and movies. A company's long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. AMC Networks's demand was weak over the last five years as its sales fell at a 4.6% annual rate. This wasn't a great result and suggests it's a low quality business. Long-term growth is the most important, but within consumer discretionary, product cycles are short and revenue can be hit-driven due to rapidly changing trends and consumer preferences. AMC Networks's recent performance shows its demand remained suppressed as its revenue has declined by 12.4% annually over the last two years. AMC Networks also breaks out the revenue for its most important segments, Affiliate and Advertising, which are 28.1% and 21.4% of revenue. Over the last two years, AMC Networks's Affiliate revenue (retransmission and licensing fees) averaged 13.2% year-on-year declines while its Advertising revenue (marketing services) averaged 14.9% declines. This quarter, AMC Networks missed Wall Street's estimates and reported a rather uninspiring 6.9% year-on-year revenue decline, generating $555.2 million of revenue. Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to decline by 3.8% over the next 12 months. While this projection is better than its two-year trend, it's tough to feel optimistic about a company facing demand difficulties. Today's young investors likely haven't read the timeless lessons in Gorilla Game: Picking Winners In High Technology because it was written more than 20 years ago when Microsoft and Apple were first establishing their supremacy. But if we apply the same principles, then enterprise software stocks leveraging their own generative AI capabilities may well be the Gorillas of the future. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next. Operating margin is a key measure of profitability. Think of it as net income - the bottom line - excluding the impact of taxes and interest on debt, which are less connected to business fundamentals. AMC Networks's operating margin has been trending down over the last 12 months and averaged 4.8% over the last two years. The company's profitability was mediocre for a consumer discretionary business and shows it couldn't pass its higher operating expenses onto its customers. In Q1, AMC Networks generated an operating profit margin of 11.6%, down 6.9 percentage points year on year. This contraction shows it was less efficient because its expenses increased relative to its revenue. We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company's growth is profitable. Sadly for AMC Networks, its EPS declined by 15.3% annually over the last five years, more than its revenue. This tells us the company struggled because its fixed cost base made it difficult to adjust to shrinking demand. In Q1, AMC Networks reported EPS at $0.52, down from $1.16 in the same quarter last year. This print missed analysts' estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects AMC Networks's full-year EPS of $3.54 to shrink by 13.3%. We struggled to find many positives in these results as its revenue, EPS, and EBITDA fell short of Wall Street's estimates. Overall, this quarter could have been better. The stock remained flat at $6.19 immediately after reporting. So do we think AMC Networks is an attractive buy at the current price? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it's free.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Spotting Winners: AMC Networks (NASDAQ:AMCX) And Broadcasting Stocks In Q4
As the Q4 earnings season wraps, let's dig into this quarter's best and worst performers in the broadcasting industry, including AMC Networks (NASDAQ:AMCX) and its peers. Broadcasting companies have been facing secular headwinds in the form of consumers abandoning traditional television and radio in favor of streaming services. As a result, many broadcasting companies have evolved by forming distribution agreements with major streaming platforms so they can get in on part of the action, but will these subscription revenues be as high quality and high margin as their legacy revenues? Only time will tell which of these broadcasters will survive the sea changes of technological advancement and fragmenting consumer attention. The 8 broadcasting stocks we track reported a mixed Q4. As a group, revenues were in line with analysts' consensus estimates while next quarter's revenue guidance was 12.8% above. Amidst this news, share prices of the companies have had a rough stretch. On average, they are down 8.7% since the latest earnings results. Originally the joint-venture of four cable television companies, AMC Networks (NASDAQ:AMCX) is a broadcaster producing a diverse range of television shows and movies. AMC Networks reported revenues of $599.3 million, down 11.7% year on year. This print fell short of analysts' expectations by 2.3%. Overall, it was a slower quarter for the company with a significant miss of analysts' EPS estimates and a miss of analysts' Affiliate revenue estimates. AMC Networks Chief Executive Officer Kristin Dolan said: "We are pleased and encouraged by our results in the fourth quarter and across all of 2024. We achieved our full-year guidance across all key financial metrics, including generating healthy free cash flow of $331 million. Our free cash flow performance to date has been strong and we are increasing our expectations to approximately $550 million of cumulative free cash flow over the '24/'25 two-year period. We forged and expanded innovative partnerships that are helping to drive our company forward amidst a period of change that is challenging all media companies. In addition, we continued to delight fans by delivering high-quality and distinctive shows and films across our own targeted offerings as well as an array of partner platforms, and to expand our targeting capabilities to differentiate our advertising business." AMC Networks delivered the slowest revenue growth of the whole group. Unsurprisingly, the stock is down 39.1% since reporting and currently trades at $6. Read our full report on AMC Networks here, it's free. Founded in 1915, Fox (NASDAQ:FOXA) is a diversified media company, operating prominent cable news, television broadcasting, and digital media platforms. FOX reported revenues of $5.08 billion, up 19.9% year on year, outperforming analysts' expectations by 5%. The business had a stunning quarter with an impressive beat of analysts' EPS estimates and a solid beat of analysts' EBITDA estimates. FOX scored the biggest analyst estimates beat among its peers. Although it had a fine quarter compared its peers, the market seems unhappy with the results as the stock is down 4.5% since reporting. It currently trades at $49.57. Is now the time to buy FOX? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free. Owner of Spongebob Squarepants and formerly known as ViacomCBS, Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) is a major media conglomerate offering television, film production, and digital content across various global platforms. Paramount reported revenues of $7.98 billion, up 4.5% year on year, falling short of analysts' expectations by 1.9%. It was a disappointing quarter as it posted a significant miss of analysts' EBITDA and EPS estimates. Interestingly, the stock is up 4.5% since the results and currently trades at $11.74. Read our full analysis of Paramount's results here. Founded as a chain of daily newspapers, E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP) is a diversified media enterprise operating a range of local television stations, national networks, and digital media platforms. E.W. Scripps reported revenues of $728.4 million, up 18.3% year on year. This result was in line with analysts' expectations. More broadly, it was a slower quarter as it recorded a miss of analysts' EPS estimates and a miss of analysts' Local Media revenue estimates. The stock is up 33% since reporting and currently trades at $1.90. Read our full, actionable report on E.W. Scripps here, it's free. Founded in 1996, Nexstar (NASDAQ:NXST) is an American media company operating numerous local television stations and digital media outlets across the country. Nexstar Media reported revenues of $1.49 billion, up 14.1% year on year. This number topped analysts' expectations by 0.5%. Taking a step back, it was a slower quarter as it logged a significant miss of analysts' EPS estimates and a miss of analysts' Core Advertising revenue estimates. The stock is up 3.8% since reporting and currently trades at $151.83. Read our full, actionable report on Nexstar Media here, it's free. Thanks to the Fed's rate hikes in 2022 and 2023, inflation has been on a steady path downward, easing back toward that 2% sweet spot. Fortunately (miraculously to some), all this tightening didn't send the economy tumbling into a recession, so here we are, cautiously celebrating a soft landing. The cherry on top? Recent rate cuts (half a point in September 2024, a quarter in November) have propped up markets, especially after Trump's November win lit a fire under major indices and sent them to all-time highs. However, there's still plenty to ponder — tariffs, corporate tax cuts, and what 2025 might hold for the economy. Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our 9 Best Market-Beating Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate. Join Paid Stock Investor Research Help us make StockStory more helpful to investors like yourself. Join our paid user research session and receive a $50 Amazon gift card for your opinions. Sign up here.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Taiwanese Drama ‘The World Between Us: After the Flames' Sets Premiere Date On Prime Video
Six years after the release of acclaimed Taiwanese series The World Between Us, a sequel titled The World Between Us: After the Flames will premiere on June 7 on Amazon Prime Video, as well as on streaming platform Catchplay+, Taiwan's local broadcaster PTS and Iqiyi. Building on the spirit of its predecessor, the second season features a new storyline and fresh cast. More from Deadline Brillante Mendoza's Crime Drama 'Chameleon' Picked Up By SC Films International For Sales Launch In Cannes Writers Guild Of America West Staff Union Wins Voluntarily Recognition, Moves To Negotiate First Contract AMC Networks Boss Kristin Dolan On Why Streaming Is Better When It's Wholesale, And What She Learned From 'Dark Winds' Netflix Run The cast is headed by Vic Chou (Meteor Garden), Hsueh Shih-ling (Taiwan Crime Stories), Hsieh Hsin-ying (The Assassin), Yang Kuei-Mei (Yen and Ai-Lee) and Yu Tzu-Yu. Lin Chun-yang, director of the first season, has returned to direct the sequel after also working on Gold Leaf and Netflix's Wave Makers. The series will co-premiere in Taiwan on PTS and Catchplay Movie Channel, as well as stream on Catchplay+, PTS+ and Iqiyi International. After the Flames will also stream on Catchplay+ in Singapore and Indonesia, as well as on Amazon Prime Video globally in more than 240 countries and territories, excluding Taiwan. The series is produced by TAICCA, Taiwan's Public Television, Catchplay, Koko Entertainment and DaMou Entertainment. 'We are pleased to play a part in expanding the platforms for this celebrated Taiwanese drama,' said Catchplay CEO Daphne Yang. 'We've always believed in the power of partnerships, and are committed to enhancing visibility and maximizing the impact of the content we co-produce.' Producer Jayde Lin, who also led the original season, added: 'As we approach the global premiere, we're incredibly proud to bring this new chapter to audiences around the world,' she said. 'We worked hard to elevate the production quality and narrative scale in this new season, and it's encouraging to see the effort recognized with a global launch across more than 240 countries and territories.' Director Lin said: 'The first season focused on revealing the humanity behind malice. In the upcoming season, we build on that foundation with more intricate character dynamics and interwoven fates, exploring themes of choice, healing, understanding, and the power of holding on to one another.' After the series' June 7 premiere, two new episodes will air every Saturday. Best of Deadline 'Ginny & Georgia' Season 3: Everything We Know So Far Everything We Know About The 'Reminders of Him' Movie So Far 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With Big ‘Silo' Renewal By Apple TV+ And Return Of The 'Netflix Effect', AMC Networks Staying In Third-Party Licensing Game
Last December's two-season renewal of Apple TV+ series Silo was a boon to AMC Networks, whose studio arm produces the show. But even though there's no major follow-up project in the pipeline, top execs plan to remain in the third-party business. 'Currently we're producing pretty much exclusively for our AMC-owned platforms,' Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios, said Friday on a quarterly conference call with Wall Street analysts. Nevertheless, he continued, 'We do have a studio, we are able to produce for third parties when it's beneficial to us and makes financial sense. We do have a lot of interest in our studio content, so we're going to be strategic and opportunistic as we go forward.' More from Deadline AMC Networks Revenue Slides 12% In Q4 As Results Fall Short Of Wall Street Targets 'Severance' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Land On Apple TV+? 'Terrifier 3' Shakes Up Cineverse Fall Quarter As Revenue And Profit Soar, 'Terrifier 4' Script In The Works In 2023, AMC Networks collected $56 million in licensing fees for Silo, according to SEC filings. Even when that gain and a $20 million gain from returned licenses from Hulu are factored out, overall licensing in 2024 increased 4% over 2023 levels to reach $277 million. That $277 million figure also includes a sizable amount from Netflix, which reached a deal to feature past seasons of several AMC Networks shows. CEO Kristin Dolan highlighted what she called the 'Netflix effect,' wherein library episodes draw a crowd on Netflix, helping to generate buzz for new seasons when they arrive on the company's own channels and streaming outlets. The phenomenon dates back more than a decade, with Breaking Bad an early beneficiary. Production started last fall on the third season of Silo, a dystopian drama starring Rebecca Ferguson (who also is an executive producer) and created by Graham Yost. Apple TV+ hasn't announced a premiere date for the third season. The streaming outlet said the fourth season will be the show's last. License fees are generally accounted for when a season debuts on a network or streamer, so even though the renewal news came last December the financial benefit will not show up in financial results until around the time of premiere. CFO Patrick O'Connell noted during the call that the company far exceeded guidance of $225 million in licensing revenue last year. 'That was based on our current level of production,' he said, with the company's 2025 forecast set at $250 million. 'We continue to produce at really healthy levels and the market continues to be extraordinarily receptive to the programming that we're producing,' the exec said. Licensing 'was a net growth driver in 2024 and we continue to think it's going to be a tailwind in 2025.' Another upcoming milestone noted by Dolan will be the return to the company in early 2027 of rights to the original Walking Dead series, which will offer a number of strategic options. Licensing was one of the few upbeat themes for AMC Networks in an otherwise disappointing quarter, with an ongoing ad slump helping to drag total revenue down 12% from the year-ago period. The company undershot Wall Street analysts' consensus forecasts for revenue and earnings per share and also took a charge of $267.8 million to reflect the declining value of its linear networks. Shares in AMC Networks fell 7% in early trading Friday after traders digested the earnings report. Best of Deadline 'Severance' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Land On Apple TV+? 'Captain America: Brave New World' Primer: What To Remember Ahead Of The First Marvel Film Of 2025 The 25 Highest-Grossing Animated Films Of All Time At The Box Office Sign in to access your portfolio
