In an upfront season impacted by the fallout from the Hollywood strikes and larger discontent in the advertising market, AMC Networks is approaching this year with “flexibility” in mind, the company’s chief commercial officer Kim Kelleher says.
“I think we’re entering into a continuum where flexibility has been the the kind of marching orders of clients and the holding companies and frankly, us,” says Kelleher, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in her New York office. “So now I think people are starting to choose their lanes. If you want to take advantage of what the upfront offers from a pricing and inventory guarantee perspective, you’re going to be an upfront advertiser. If you’re a digitally-led advertiser, you want to come into the market and not necessarily pledge upfront your plans for the next year, or actually even further out than that, then that’s perfectly acceptable as well.”
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“We believe transparency is going to be important this year.Where’s my content running? What genres of show? Did it deliver?” adds Evan Adlman, AMC’s executive VP of commercial sales and revenue operations. “And then to the flexibility part, I think it’s being able to be flexible amongst transaction type. And since audience-led offerings are really performing well today, I think the ones that have very excellent data targeting capabilities, and giving the advertiser flexibility to move between products, is something that we’re anticipating to see this year.”
In addition to its lineup of new and returning shows, AMC Networks is also bringing new offerings to its digital slate.
For starters, just a few months after rolling out an advertising-supported tier of AMC+, the company will also be bringing ad tiers to its niche streaming services, like Shudder (horror); Acorn TV (global thrillers and dramas fro the U.K., Australia, Ireland, etc.); HIDIVE (Japanese anime); ALLBLK (focused on Black audiences); and Sundance Now.
“What we’ve seen [with AMC+] is exactly actually what we expected, which is, it’s about choice for the viewer,” Kelleher says. “And if price is a barrier to entry for consumption of our content, especially in a targeted vertical — so you love anime, you love cozy British murder mysteries — We want you to have access to it. And if offering a lower priced tier gives you that entry point, please come on in.”
“We’ve seen huge adoption [of the ad tier of AMC+] and it hasn’t cannibalized our core subscribers, so we’re really seeing it as added additive,” Kelleher added.
The company is also adding to its “Content Room,” the company’s branded entertainment studio.
That includes new programming, including a second season of In the Kitchen with Harry Hamlin (the first season was sponsored by Whole Foods); another season of the behind-the-scenes series Show Me More; and new shows The Walking Dogs, which profile the beloved dogs of stars from the Walking Dead franchise; and Vibe Check with Reginae, hosted by Reginae Carter of the WE tv seris Toya & Reginae.
And AMC Networks is leaning further into the horror genre, betting that it can be a new platform for marketers to explore. The company has hired Josh Ruben (he’s a well-known horror writer/actor/director of Scare Me and Werewolves Within) to be its “ambassador of horror,” a “concierge,” in the words of Kelleher, to help brands find their place in the genre.
“We go pretty deep on horror,” says Kim Granito, AMC’s CMO. “We also are the home to Fear Fest for the last couple of decades, which is the number one October destination for horror, so we’ve been in this space for a while and it is a big advertiser moment. What we have found in researching this audience is people that love this genre, love this genre, and it is not scary, it is not gross, it is not cringy. It is joyful. So it is a joyful thing and it is a very passionate moment for them. And we wanted to create an opportunity for an advertiser to put themselves in the middle of it, beyond just a commercial, because a commercial breaking in the moment of suspense isn’t always the best thing.”
Ruben, Granito says “is going to be writing, producing and creating custom horror films for our partners that will air within all of the horror environments that we have across the portfolio.”
AMC Networks plans to discuss the new offerings, as well as its programming, at an upfront event in New York this week, getting ahead of the chaos that will follow in late April and May.
Kelleher says this year’s pitch will be “a much more immersive experience and bring our shows to life.”
