AMC Networks increased streaming revenue by 12 percent to $169 million in Q2 despite an 18 percent dip in U.S. ad sales. The company — whose portfolio of streaming platforms includes AMC+, Sundance Now, Acorn TV, Shudder, HIDIVE and ALLBLK — added 200,000 new subs in the April through June period, ending the quarter with a total of 10.4 million, a 2 percent increase. AMC said it now calculates streaming subscribers on the basis of paid signups. Ongoing challenges in the U.S. cable and satellite TV markets that berth the bulk of its business continue to drag on the balance sheet. AMC’s cable and satellite brands include AMC, BBC America, IFC, IFC Films, SundanceTV and WE tv.

“Overall, domestic operations revenue dipped 2 percent in Q2 to $527 million,” Variety writes, noting that “within that segment, subscription revenues were down 1 percent to $320 million.” Streaming sales, while up, had gains “primarily attributed to price hikes across the AMC Networks-owned streamers” while “affiliate revenue dropped 12 percent to $151 million.”

“All cable network owners are coping with dramatic declines in subscriber levels due to cord-cutting and the rise of streaming, which have seen pay-TV penetration retreat to 1980s levels,” reports Deadline. “The business of pay-TV continues to generate abundant cash, just not at the startlingly high levels of the 1990s and 2000s.” That downward trend translates to “lower revenue from distribution and advertising.”

AMC Networks EVP and CFO Patrick O’Connell told analysts the company does not plan to start selling or spinning off cable assets. O’Connell cited Comcast’s new spinoff Versant, which will house cable assets, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s bifurcation into separate companies for studios and streaming and cable TV as what companies are doing that “are cable businesses at their core.”

“AMC Networks, he said, is ‘very different’ from those rivals, in part because streaming will comprise the majority of company revenue in 2025,” Deadline writes.

Positive signs cited in the company’s earnings release include 25 percent growth in digital sales in Upfront negotiations.

Related:
AMC Networks Sees Streaming Lift, but Ad Woes Weigh on Q2 Earnings, TheDesk, 8/8/25