AMC Networks Q1 Profit Slips, U.S. Ad Revenues Rise

AMC Networks posted a Q1 profit of $143 million, compared with the year-ago’s $157 million, while its U.S. advertising revenues saw a nice lift.

First-quarter revenues increased 5.9 percent to $784 million. This reflected a 2.7 percent decline at National Networks and 53.6 percent growth at International and Other.

National Networks—AMC, WE tv, BBC America, IFC and SundanceTV, as well as AMC Studios—posted Q1 revenues of $616 million, down 2.7 percent. Operating income inched up 0.7 percent to $252 million. There was a 5.9 percent gain in ad revenues to $239 million, primarily related to higher pricing as well as the timing of the airing of original programming, partially offset by lower delivery. Distribution revenue was down 7.4 percent to $377 million, with a decrease in content licensing revenues partially offset by an increase in subscription revenues.

International and Other—AMC Networks International, IFC Films, Levity Entertainment Group, RLJ Entertainment and the streaming services Shudder and Sundance Now—saw Q1 revenues increase 53.6 percent to $171 million while operating loss narrowed to a loss of $14 million. Revenue growth reflected $43 million related to the acquisition of Levity and $22 million related to the RLJ Entertainment acquisition, offset by unfavorable currency exchange.

“AMC Networks had a strong start to the year and our results have put us on track to achieve our full-year targets,” said Josh Sapan, AMC Networks’ president and CEO. “With our focused, well-priced and desirable collection of assets, we occupy a differentiated space in the media landscape. We continue to create distinctive content that ignites broad cultural conversation, including Killing Eve and The Walking Dead, some of today’s most enduring IP on any screen, anywhere. We recently greenlit a third Walking Dead original series with more incarnations to come.”