AMC Networks reported double-digit declines in advertising and affiliate revenue in the third quarter, which dragged down its overall results.The cable and streaming programmer posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.85, which was down from $2.09 a year ago but still ahead of Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimate. Revenue, though, did not clear the Street’s bar, falling nearly 7% to $637 million.Advertising revenue came in at $147 million, with the earnings release blaming the 18% drop on “anticipated linear ratings declines, a challenging ad market and fewer original programming episodes within the quarter.”Affiliate revenue decreased 13%, with the company blaming basic subscriber declines and a 3% hit to revenue from a strategic non-renewal with a distributor at the end of 2022.Streaming provided somewhat of a bright spot, but growth was muted. AMC Networks operates a portfolio of niche services, so it is playing a different game than larger media rivals backing general entertainment streamers, but nevertheless the road is challenging. Revenue in streaming increased 9% to $142 million and the overall tally of subscribers rose 4% from a year ago to 11.1 million. Growth over the second quarter was modest at 100,000 subscribers but it reversed previous sequential declines.AMC Networks has been pushing to increase advertising and subscriber-acquisition opportunities in several strategic directions of late, launching a raft of FAST channels and an ad-supported version of flagship streamer AMC+. It has also recently initiated the first fully programmatic ad buying setup in linear prime time. On the streaming front, it also swung a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery during the quarter to have seven series appear on its Max streaming service as pop-ups free of charge to Max subscribers.
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