Sean Sullivan
Analyst · Guggenheim Partners
Thanks and good morning. As Josh highlighted our results in the first quarter were strong and the year off to a solid start. Company delivered healthy revenue AOCF and pre cash flow. We are optimistic about the outlook for the remainder of 2015 and I will touch on that after reviewing the first quarter results. In summary, the first quarter delivered total company revenue growth of 27% in AOCF growth of 55%, as a reminder the comparability of our results was affected by Chellomedia acquisition which closed in January 31st, 2014 and the BBC America transaction which closed in October. Turning to our reporting segments, the national networks revenues increased 25% or $114 million, national networks AOCF increased 42% or 76 million versus the prior year period to a total of 253 million. Advertising revenues increased 25% for the quarter to a total of $260 million, a portion of this increase related to the inclusion of BBC America. Excluding BBC A advertising growth was in the mid to high teens over the prior year period. AMC was the primary driver as it benefited from the performance of its original programming most notably the Walking Dead and Better Call Saul. Distribution revenues of the National Networks increased 26% or $62 million to a total of 302 million versus the first quarter of 2014. Affiliate fee growth for the quarter was an access of 20% on a reported basis, excluding the BBC America contribution growth was in mid-teens. The year-over-year growth rate was favorably impacted by rate restes we achieved in connection with several of our recent renewals. I’ll add some additional comments about the outlook for this revenue stream later in my remarks. Distribution revenue growth for the first quarter also reflected a strong double digit year-over-year increase in non-affiliate revenues to principally to increases in revenues related to the licensing of our scripted original programs. Most notably The Walking Dead on various ancillary platforms as well as several of our scripted Dramas on digital platforms, namely AMC’s TURN as well as Sundance’s RECTIFY and the Red Road. Moving to expenses, expenses in the quarter increased 14% for $39 million versus the prior year period. Excluding the impact of BBC America, expenses increase in the mid-single digits as compared to the first quarter of 2014. Technical and operating expenses increased 16% or $27 million compared to the prior year period 297 million. In the quarter we recorded $10 million in charges primarily related to our decision not to move forward with the Pilot White City at AMC. This amount compares to write off of 4 million in the first quarter of 2014, the remainder of the year-over-year variant principally related to the impact of BBC AMERICA activity as well as our continued investment in original programming across all of our networks. SG&A expenses were $180 million in the quarter, an increase of 12% or 30 million versus the prior year period. The increase is primarily related to the consolidation of BBC AMERICA. Marketing costs were relatively flat year-over-year due to the timing of originals across our portfolio of networks. With respect to the International and Other segment, revenues for the first quarter increased $30 million to 106 million. AOCF for the first quarter increased $70 million to a total of 6 million versus the prior year. The increase in revenues primarily reflected the consolidation of the Chellomedia business. As a reminder, we recorded three full months of Chello activity in 2015 compared to two months in the first quarter of 2014. As for AOCF, the results in the first quarter benefited from the extra month of Chello as well as the absence of $40 million in professional fees that we recorded in the first quarter of 2014 related to the acquisition. Foreign exchange fluctuations were a modest headwind in the quarter. The impact of revenue in AOCF was approximately 10 million and 2 million respectively. Moving to net income, total company net income from continuing operations for the first quarter was a $121 million or $1.66 per diluted share compared to $72 million or $0.99 per diluted share in the prior year period. Adjusted EPS for the first quarter of 2015 was $1.76 per diluted share excluding the impact of amortization of acquisition related intangibles. EPS and adjusted-EPS for the first quarter of 2015 included $1 million of restructuring charges and 10 million of miscellaneous expense related to unrealized foreign currency transaction losses. In terms of free-cash-flow, the company reported $62 million in the free-cash-flow for the three months ended March 2015. For the first quarter of 2015, cash interest was 37 million, tax payments were 13 million and capital expenditures were 18 million. Program rights amortization for the three month period was 170 million and program rights payments were 178 million resulting in use of cash of $8 million. This compares to the use of cash for programming of 36 million for the prior year period. The company made a mandatory payment of $18.5 million on its credit facility in the first quarter, as we previously disclosed in various filings, we are required to make similar quarterly payments throughout the remainder of 2015. Turning to the balance sheet, as of March 31st, AMC Networks had a net debt position of 2.6 billion a leverage ratio based on LTM AOCF of 752 million was 3.5 times. When adjusted for consolidated entities that are less than 100% owned such as BBC AMERICA, this ratio increased to slightly about 10 basis points. Consistent with our past communications, we expect to continue to delever through the combination of AOCF growth and free-cash-flow generation. Looking to the remainder of 2015, we are optimistic about the outlook for the company’s performance. As we discussed on our last call, for the full year at our National Networks, we continue to expect advertising and non-affiliate revenue to be growth drivers and anticipate managing the National Networks business to a margin that’s broadly stable with 2014. With regard to affiliate revenues, we wanted to expand a little on our expectations. We continue to expect growth in the mid to high single-digit range. However for the remainder of 2015, we expect to continue to see normalized growth that is excluding the impact of BBC AMERICA in the double-digits. Looking beyond 2015, we expect affiliate fee growth to temper as we cycle through the rate recess. At our International and Other segment, we expect results for the remaining nine months of the year to be impacted by foreign currency headwinds. With regard to our quarterly performance, we anticipate continued variability as a consequence of the specific timing of our investment in content and the airing of our shows. Looking ahead to the second quarter, we expect some unfavorable comparisons from the prior year. At the National Networks, we anticipate advertising growth excluding the impact of BBC AMERICA to be more modest given the programming lineup. On the cost side, we expect expenses to increase year-over-year most notably due to the inclusion of BBC AMERICA in our reported results as well as our continued investment in content. At our International and Other segment, second quarter revenue and AOCF are expected to be down year-over-year due primarily in the foreign currency rates in the timing of various operational items. These factors and aggregates are expected to result total company AOCF growth on our reported basis for the second quarter as relatively modest compared to the prior year period. As for the second half of the year, we’ll have more to say on that in our next call but we do expect the comparisons to be more favorable and as a result anticipate stronger performance. In terms of capital allocation, there has been no change in our strategy. Our primary focus continues to be investing in our core business, we believe this will continue to allow us to grow AOCF on a sustainable basis and we’ll generate in greatest return for our shareholders over the long-term. So with that, we’d like to move to the question and answer portion of the call. Operator, if you please open the call for questions.