Mitchell Ryan has sadly passed away.
16.02.2022 - 16:17 / deadline.com
AMC Networks beat Wall Street estimates for the fourth quarter and reported 9 million streaming subscribers as of the end of 2021, in line with company projections.
Earnings came in at 54 cents a share on an adjusted, diluted basis, down 80% from the same quarter a year ago but comfortably ahead of forecasts. Revenue inched up 3% to $803.7 million.
The company’s portfolio of niche streaming services, including AMC+, Acorn TV and Shudder, is on track to reach company projections of 20 million to 25 million subscribers.
For the full year 2021, AMC Networks reported record revenue of $3.1 billion, up 9% from 2020.
In the quarter, advertising revenue slipped 1% to $234 million. The company blamed lower linear ratings, though it pointed to higher pricing and ad-supported streaming growth as counter-balancing factors.
Adjusted operating income fell 16% to $122 million in the quarter. The company cited “increased investments in subscriber acquisition and retention marketing to support the continued growth of our streaming services.”
In the company’s earnings release, interim CEO Matt Blank saluted the streaming subscriber tally as “a significant milestone driven by the strength of our streaming brands and the depth of content within each of our offerings.”
Blank took the helm last year after longtime CEO and company exec Josh Sapan stepped down, one of several changes in the C-suite as AMC Networks has reckoned with a changing media era. With a focus on niche streaming, the company expects to derive most of its revenue from the digital side by 2025, a notable change for a steward of cable networks that were once the profitable and growing focus of its business.
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Mitchell Ryan has sadly passed away.
Assad Zaman (Hotel Portofino, Small Axe) has joined the cast of AMC’s Interview With The Vampire, its series adaptation of Anne Rice’s book. Zaman will play Rashid, joining previously cast Sam Reid as Lestat, Jacob Anderson as Louis and Bailey Bass as Claudia. The seven-episode first season is set to premiere on AMC+ and AMC later this year.
The Stanford University community is mourning a tragic loss.
Darren Criss has announced that his brother, Charles “Chuck” Criss, has tragically passed away.
“The Batman” this weekend.AMC theaters are planning to charge higher ticket prices for the Robert Pattinson superhero flick when it opens this Friday, March 4.The cinema chain is experimenting with variable pricing for films, meaning they want to charge more money for certain, presumably higher-budget movies.AMC’s CEO Adam Aron announced the news on Tuesday during a web call about the company’s quarterly profits: “Currently, our prices for ‘The Batman’ are slightly higher than the prices we are charging for other movies playing in the same theaters at the same time,” he said. Aron then said that the transition follows a few years after they raised weekend prices for some of its locations in the United States, Deadline reported.“This is all quite novel in the United States, but actually AMC has been doing it for years in our European theaters.
Metallica’s Kirk Hammett is set to publish his first comic book, Nights of Lono.The comic, which will launch this year but has yet to receive a firm release date, was announced on Monday (March 1), along with the news that AMC Networks is launching a new book publishing arm, AMC Networks Publishing.For Nights of Lono, Hammett – a longtime horror enthusiast – will be teaming up with writing partner Marcel Feldmar. The comic book will be set in 1989 Hawaii, and will explore themes within the supernatural, mystery and adventure genres.Per AMC Networks Publishing’s official description, Nights of Lono will tell the tale of “a troubled female detective who is hired to find King Kamehameha’s tomb before it is discovered by an unscrupulous occultist fro the mainland”.The comic is also described as a “self-aware journey through standard detective tropes and cliches that are sharpened and given new life with fresh takes on the myths and folklore of the Hawaiian Islands”.Following the news of AMC Networks Publishing’s launch and Nights of Lono, Hammett took to social media to say: “Excited to partner with award-winning creatives & companies to further engage [AMC’s] passionate fanbases with the stories & characters they love”.A post shared by Kirk Hammett (@kirkhammett)Besides Nights of Lono, Hammett is set to provide a foreword for AMC Networks Publishing’s first title, Shudder’s Creepshow: From Script to Scream, alongside Stephen King.Nights of Lono will mark the second book that the Metallica guitarist has written, following his 2012 coffee-table book, Too Much Horror Business, which detailed his horror collection and memorabilia.
Patrick Stewart checks back in for season 2 of the Paramount+ series, which kicks off its new episodes Thursday, and only ET exclusively debuts stunning new photos of the cast — including vet Whoopi Goldberg — back in action. And they're not just posing on any old set.
Ned Eisenberg has sadly passed away at 65, following a private cancer battle.
From BAFTA-Winner Peter Moffat, J. David Shanks, and Michael B.
Sally Kellerman, an Oscar-nominated actress best known for her role in the movie MASH, has died at the age of 84.
Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterDiscovery, Inc. hit 22 million paid streaming subscribers worldwide by the end of 2021, with the vast majority being Discovery Plus customers, the company revealed Thursday.The company reported last November that it grew to 20 million paid direct-to-consumer subscribers by the end of Q3.
Discovery said it ended the fourth quarter with 22 million DTC subscribers, up from 20 million for Q3. The bulk of subs are from Discovery+.
FuboTV exceeded Wall Street estimates for the fourth quarter, with revenue more than doubling from the year-ago period to $231.1 million and net losses coming in at 57 cents a share.
Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAMC Networks will unveil a new ad-sales initiative called “Avenue” aimed at helping advertisers reach diverse audiences more effectively and more frequently.Slated to be unveiled at a virtual “upfront” event on Thursday, “Avenue” aims to give advertisers more resources to reach different audiences and new events that will make that outreach possible throughout the calendar year, says Kim Kelleher, , president of commercial revenue and partnerships for AMC Networks, in a recent interview.“We are part of this greater industry that’s really striving to be more representative, and more authentic in that representation,” says Kelleher. “What we have done is organized our audiences, our data tools, and our creators in a way that can more easily be tapped by our advertising and marketing partners.” “Avenue” will initially focus on five key groups: women, Black audiences, LBGTQ+, Asian-American Pacific Islanders) and Hispanic/Latinx.
Vanity Fair’s annual Hollywood Issue, reacted to the news by saying, “That’s so funny. I wonder where.” It’s not that Stewart is actively avoiding royal gossip because of a sense of moral superiority. She says, “I’m no better than anyone! Of course, I want to know.”Still, the actor says she couldn’t even bring herself to watch Prince Harry and ’s with in full when it aired in March 2021.