AMC+ to Announce Cheaper, Ad-Supported Price Tier at Upfront Presentation on Tuesday; Plan Will be Available by October
The troubles that AMC and its family of premium cable networks and streaming services have been going through in the last year have been well documented. Cord cutting has led to a steep decline in the number of subscribers its linear cable channels have, and its portfolio of niche streaming services like AMC+, Shudder, and ALLBLK has not made up the difference.
But that doesn’t mean that the corporation is ready to throw in the towel just yet, despite cycling through four CEOs in the past 20 months. AMC is now headed by Kristin Dolan — wife of owner James Dolan — and under her leadership the company is planning to launch a new, cheaper ad-supported price tier to AMC+ by October of this year, which it will announce during its Upfront presentation on Tuesday, April 18, according to a report from Deadline.
An ad-supported tier helps streamers bring in more dollars per user. The money they pull in from advertisers more than makes up for the smaller amount that people are paying every month to access a service, and a company like AMC with only 11.8 million streaming users has to do something to get more money out of its subscribers. Raising the current $8.99 per month price point of AMC+ did not seem like a viable solution, but this may be just the ticket for AMC.
“This is a big moment for AMC Networks and for our advertising partners, because it not only creates a fully-ad supported distribution ecosystem, it also allows advertisers to buy our shows, genres and franchises in a much more comprehensive and impactful way,” AMC’s chief commercial officer Kim Kelleher told Deadline. “With our new series content, library titles and other targeted streaming platforms that are all bundled into AMC+, partners can move beyond individual shows and even series and choose to ‘own’ whole genres and franchises, and drive messaging to target audiences no matter what they are watching or where.”
The introduction of an ad-supported tier to AMC+ is one of the least-drastic options the company has been faced with in its efforts to right itself financially. Others include the consolidation of ALLBLK and Acorn TV — two of the other niche streaming service’s in AMC’s collection — with AMC+, or even the sale of its cable networks to allow the company to focus all of its efforts on streaming.
AMC, of course, is not the only streaming platform in the industry to launch an ad-supported tier in recent months. Netflix brought its Basic with Ads plan to market in early November, and Disney+ did likewise with its Disney+ Basic tier in December. Results were mixed for those companies initially, but now both ad-supported plans have started to gain more traction among users.
There was no date announced for when users could expect the new AMC+ plan with ads to be available, just that it will likely be available at some point in 2023. If the company uses the same timeline that Netflix did, it could go from announcing the service to launching it in as little as six months, but, since it is being announced during Upfronts — which are primarily used to attract advertisers for the next season of TV — it would make since for it to be in place by September’s launch of the new fall slate.
AMC+
AMC+ is a premium streaming bundle that includes the best from AMC, BBC America, IFC, SundanceTV, Shudder, Sundance Now, and IFC Films Unlimited containing original, award-winning series, popular movies, festival favorites, plus horror, sci-fi, true crime, and thrillers. You can subscribe to AMC+ for $4.99 / month or save with the annual plan for $59.88 / year.