AMC Networks ended the second quarter of 2023 with 11 million streaming subscribers. Although this represents an increase on the second quarter of last year, it is a decrease when compared to the first quarter of 2023.
While AMC Plus is probably the service most people associate with AMC Networks, the company does also operate a number of other streaming services, including Acorn TV, ALLBLK, and Shudder.
Taking all of those streaming services into account, AMC finished Q2 2023 with approximately 11 million subscribers. According to its latest earnings report, this represented an increase of 6% when compared to the 10.3 million subscribers reported at the end of the second quarter of 2022.
When compared to the first quarter of this year, however, it did represent a decrease. In total, AMC reported 11.5 million subscribers at the end of Q1 2023, resulting in a loss of around 500,000 during the most recent quarter.
According to AMC, the quarterly loss was not quite as large as 500,000. To explain, AMC says that it no longer includes estimated subscriber conversions as part of its subscriber definition. As a result of this change, 300,000 subscribers were removed from its subscriber count.
Still, and even taking into consideration the subscriber definition change, Q2 subscribers were down 200,000 when compared to Q1. In explaining this drop, AMC said the decline reflected “our continued focus on higher value subscribers and promotional roll-off.”
In spite of the decline in subscribers, AMC reported a 1% increase in subscription revenue for the second quarter of 2023.
That revenue is likely to increase further during the third quarter, following the confirmation that the price of a Shudder subscription will increase at the end of this month.
In the meantime, Sling TV subscribers currently have access to a free preview of AMC Plus, allowing them to watch additional content from AMC, IFC, Shudder, and Sundance Now for free through Sunday.
