AMC Networks Plans To Have 5 To 7 Million Streaming Subscribers By 2024

AMC’s subscription video services – including Shudder, Sundance Now, Acorn TV and Urban Movie Channel - might be more niche than Netflix, Amazon or Hulu, but they are adding subscribers at a healthy clip.

During its second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, CEO Josh Sapan said that through mid-year 2019, AMC’s SVODs have added approximately 400,000 subscribers combined, and that the company is on target to end 2019 "comfortably ahead of 2 million subscribers."

Sapan said that AMC Networks’ cumulative streaming subscriber targets anticipate continued steady growth despite the increased competition from both the major SVOD services as well as rival smaller services. The company is anticipating it will have between 3.5 million and 4 million total subscribers by 2022, and between 5 million and 7 million by 2024. The company also expects more than half a billion dollars in revenue by 2024 from its four SVODs.

While the AMC services have primarily focused on third-party content, each of the services has begun adding original content to the mix, which Sapan said has been resonating with subscribers. 

"Given the genetics of our SVOD services, we have the ability to target and retain subscribers…with radically more efficiency than mainstream SVOD services that are pursuing broad general interest audiences that often experience, as we all know, people coming in and out for an individual show or series," Sapan said.