There could be a future in which AMC Networks bundles all of its brands into one streaming service. Executive vice president and chief financial officer Patrick O’Connell talked about the possibility on Wednesday during the Gabelli Funds 15th Annual Media and Entertainment Symposium.
Over the past several months, more and more companies have consolidated their streaming platforms. HBO Max and Discovery+ merged to form Max; Showtime and Paramount+ are combining later this month thanks to Paramount+ with Showtime; and Disney has announced it wants to combine Hulu and Disney+ into a single all-in-one platform. O’Connell noted that this combination strategy doesn’t currently make sense for AMC Networks, but it could in the future.
“We think all our brands stand stand alone, right? They target specific audiences. They’re designed to super serve those audiences,” O’Connell said. “That being said, we think it probably does make sense over time to sort of self-bundle, all call.”
There are currently no immediate plans for the network to move in this direction. However, it’s a strategy that AMC is “looking into on our side.”
The entertainment company has already played in the self-bundling space a bit. AMC+, the network’s biggest streaming offering, currently offers programing from AMC as well as BBC America, IFC and Sundance TV on the cable side as well as as Acorn TV, Shudder and Sundance Now on the streaming side. But that long list doesn’t include all of the brands under the company’s umbrella.
At the moment, the company is focused on “more of a targeted approach towards streaming services.” Though AMC+ is the company’s namesake streamer, it also owns the British-focused Acorn TV; Allblk, which was formerly known as the Urban Movie Channel; the anime-centric HIDIVE; the independent film streamer IFC Films; the horror hub Shudder; the prestige branch Sundance Now; and the reality-heavy WE tv+. AMC is also a minority shareholder of the British streaming service BritBox.
O’Connell noted that these specialized streaming services “super serve their core audiences.” “But from a from a monetization standpoint, streaming for us is just one tool in the toolkit,” he said. The company also has AMC Studios, which produces content in-house as well as for other networks and streamers.
The network executive also opened up about the network’s recent decision to implement an ad-supported tier on AMC+. The new option is supposed to launch by October of 2023, and AMC is hoping it “opens up the market.”
“We’ll be mindful of pricing there, obviously, from from a cannibalization standpoint. You’re always walking that line,” O’Connell said before adding the move “makes sense” for AMC’s consumers and its advertising partners.
