JAMES DOLAN ‘OPEN TO ALL IDEAS’ FOR AMC: SELL VS. STAY THE COURSE

Under the leadership of Josh Sapan, AMC Networks steered through a rocky pandemic era by charting its course as a boutique streaming service provider, offering niche-oriented AMC+, Acorn TV, Allblk and Shudder and zigging while major entertainment giants zagged to chase Netflix’s scale.

Now, with Sapan retired as CEO, executive chairman James Dolan has put forth a cost-cutting plan emphasizing $423 million in restructuring costs as his wife, veteran Cablevision exec Kristin Dolan, takes charge as CEO. The firm has seen job cuts across all its divisions after AMC’s most watched show, The Walking Dead, wrapped its run. And its boutique direct-to-consumer bet now stands at

11.8 million paid subscribers across all its brands.

There’s good news: Overall revenue in Q4 jumped 20 percent to $965 million, compared with a yearearlier $803.7 million. That beat an overall revenue expectation of $947.8 million, per a Refinitiv consensus. But severance and other personnel costs came to $45.2 million. And, amid an advertising slump, AMC reported ad sales fell 12 percent to

$206 million on lower linear TV ratings, softer ad sales and fewer original TV episodes. The company is seeking to tap global market sales for at least three Walking Dead spinoffs in the works featuring the franchise’s most beloved stars, but those future revenue sales aren’t expected to fully offset reduced ad interest in AMC’s myriad cable and streaming services. Wells Fargo’s Steven Cahall is bearish on the firm, noting that AMC “has a smaller budget vs. its peers” while still not being able to “re-create its linear earnings in streaming given the much higher churn around premium content.”

And Dolan himself is open to a merger or a deal. “Our first concern is always going to be creating value for our shareholders,” he said during a Feb. 17 earnings call. “So what form that comes in could be stay the course, it could be M&A, you know, a strategic transaction. Very honestly, we’re very much open to all of those ideas.” He added that AMC Networks was likely to remain on its own in the short term.

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