AMC discards including an ad-supported tier on its streaming services

The interim CEO of AMC Networks, Matt Blank, said the company has no plans at the moment to launch ad-supported tiers of its streaming services Shudder, Acorn TV and AMC+. “We have no current plans for an ad-supported tier, but obviously, this is something we continue to monitor,”  Blank said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call on Thursday. “It is funny when you hear other large players have some problems in their sub growth, all of a sudden, an ad-tier is going to solve all problems. We do not necessarily think that, but we will monitor the market and see what happens,”  the interim CEO of AMC Networks added.

In its first-quarter report, AMC Networks said it reached 9.5 million total streaming subscribers by the end of the quarter on March 31, up a half-million from the previous quarter. The company remarked that it is on track to meet its prediction that it will have between 20-25 million by 2025 and be halfway there by the end of the year. The group considers that streaming will be its leading source of revenue by 2025.

Christina Spade, CFO of AMC Networks, commented that the company expected to add about 400.000 subscribers in the second quarter of this year. However, in response to analyst questions, she said there could be sources of growth not included in that estimate. “We will have international expansion, relative to new markets, that are not in our base right now,”  she said.