Kristin Aigner Dolan
Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Thomas, your line is open
Thank you, Nick, and good morning, everyone. We continue to execute our clear strategic plan focused on programming, partnerships and profitability as we manage AMC Networks through this period of change in our industry. I'm pleased with the progress we've made in the first half of the year. In the second quarter, streaming revenue growth accelerated. We saw strong licensing performance and generated $96 million of free cash flow. In light of these positive results, we are raising our free cash flow outlook to approximately $250 million for the full year. In addition, we recently completed important financing transactions, which Patrick will discuss in more detail. We expect that the retirement of our debt at a significant discount will create meaningful shareholder value. I'd like to spend a moment discussing a core competency that differentiates AMC Networks, which is our ability to build and grow fan communities around our high-quality content. This is the goal of every company in media, and our success in this regard spans our linear networks, programming franchises, targeted streaming services and film business. Two weeks ago, we were at San Diego Comic-Con, the biggest fan event in the world and a major annual priority for our company. Our Walking Dead and Anne Rice universes and for the first time, our Shudder streaming service were well represented. Active fan relationships drive our company and also deliver meaningful value to our distribution and advertising partners. It was powerful and affirming to see people lined up for hours to be terrified at our Shudder activation to watch Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride preview a new season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon in Hall H or experienced the cast of interview with the Vampire entering Ballroom 20 to deafening applause. We've also approached streaming in a unique and fan-forward way, building a suite of targeted services that allow us to efficiently serve passionate fans of specific genres while achieving very high levels of engagement and loyalty. When a horror fan finds Shudder or someone who loves cozy mysteries discovers Acorn TV, something very powerful happens. They don't just add another platform to the pile, they subscribe to a service that quickly becomes their favorite. Our viewers-first strategy is designed to meet viewers wherever they are on every possible platform. The benefits of this approach are cascading across our business and allowing us to expand audiences by finding new viewers across linear, streaming and CTV FAST. We have more than 20 domestic FAST channels today, which do more than just grow our digital ad business. They promote sampling and raise awareness and interest in our brands and franchises. They drive viewership on our linear networks and subscriptions on our streaming services. We're also adapting our success in FAST internationally. We're already seeing a great response to the 3 FAST channels we've launched in the U.K. and are adding 3 more this month. Later this year, we'll launch channels in markets across Central and Northern Europe, Iberia and Latin America. We've been focused on expanding awareness and subscriber interest in the Acorn servicing brand, one of the world's first targeted streaming services. In the quarter, we celebrated our first Murder Mystery May, a new event that delivered the biggest month for Acorn ownership ever and achieved a multiyear high in subscriber acquisition. In addition to that effort, we developed a custom plan with a partner that successfully drove higher subscriber acquisition for the service, a new mystery series called Art Detectives, starring Stephen Moyer, premiered during the quarter and is now the #1 new series in Acorn history. Irish Blood, starring an executive produced by Alicia Silverstone, premieres next week, and a new Brooks Shields mystery goes into production next month. Shudder continues to cement its status as the premier brand for fans of horror and the supernatural with the breakout success of Clown in a Cornfield. The film opens a critical acclaim in May and set a company record for opening weekend box office. We're looking forward to extending the film's momentum with its streaming debut today on AMC+ and Shudder. It's worth noting that during the quarter, we implemented rate events at both Acorn and Shudder and still saw year-over-year and sequential improvements in both our rate of churn and engagement across our streaming portfolio. All of our streaming services are still priced below $10 a month, which is increasingly rare today. I'd also like to call out the strong growth of our HIDIVE streaming service. Anime is a popular genre with a passionate and highly engaged fan base. We see a lot of potential for continued growth at HIDIVE. In terms of operational updates, we're very pleased with our performance in the current advertising upfront negotiations and the continued expansion of our digital ad business as more of our advertising partners embrace the power of reaching our viewers by buying across multiple platforms. We're tracking toward the same overall volume as last year, while driving a 25%-plus increase in digital commitments, capitalizing on the innovation we've invested in over the last few years. Our commercial team leads the industry in key areas of innovation and attribution, and we see momentum as new currency opportunities are embraced by the marketplace. We're in advanced discussions with Netflix to extend and expand the innovative branded AMC collection content relationship we launched a year ago. We expect to provide a more specific update in the coming weeks. Let me just say, both companies have been very happy with the results that came from making prior seasons of many of our shows, including our biggest franchises, available to this enormous base of subscribers in the U.S. In terms of content licensing in general, we're seeing interest in our shows and franchises around the world. We saw strong performance in this category during the quarter, including continued demand for our content, the sale of our music catalog as well as additional fees related to our development of Apple TV+ hit series Silo. This reinforces not only the value of our owned IP but also the versatility and breadth of AMC Studios assets and capabilities as we continue to develop premium content for our own platforms and opportunistically for other buyers. AI has become a significant focus generally and in media. We recently entered into a partnership with a company called Runway, a leader in the use of generative AI in entertainment, to leverage AI in our marketing and programming development. We've already begun using these tools to efficiently and quickly explore possibilities around certain storylines or locations, expanding the quality and volume of opportunity in these important areas. We'll have more to say on this and how we are using this new technology across marketing and programming development in the coming months. Our work with Comcast Technology Solutions to standardize and streamline our back-office functions continues and crossed several important performance milestones in the last quarter. Just recently, we worked with CTS to expand the delivery of our content to an ever-increasing number of digital distribution partners. On the linear side, we fully transitioned origination for our LatAm channels as well as disaster recovery services for our North American channels. This meaningful progress positions us well for the technical challenges associated with the rapidly evolving media distribution landscape. We're looking forward to a third season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which will premier in September, and the arrival of a third series in our Anne Rice universe, Talamasca: The Secret Order later this fall. Our size, independence and unified organizational structure serve our company, our partners and of course, our viewers extremely well in this changing time in media. We've done the hard internal work to ensure that our employees are empowered, focused and clear on our strategy, which gives us the ability to move quickly, intelligently and decisively to seize new opportunities. We are managing this business in a thoughtful and strategic way as we continue to build franchises and entertain fans. And now I'll turn the call over to Patrick.
Patrick O’Connell: Thank you, Kristin. We are pleased to report another quarter of healthy free cash flow generation with second quarter free cash flow totaling $96 million. On the heels of the strong cash flow generation in the first half of the year, we've increased our outlook and now anticipate approximately $250 million of free cash flow for 2025. I'll have more to share on this when I reiterate the rest of our full- year outlook later in my remarks. On to our consolidated results. Second quarter consolidated net revenue declined 4% year-over-year to $600 million. Favorability in foreign exchange rates resulted in an approximately 60 basis point tailwind to our consolidated revenue growth rate. Consolidated AOI declined 28% to $109 million with an 18% margin, and adjusted EPS was $0.69 per share. I'll now review our segment results. Domestic Operations revenue decreased 2% to $527 million. Subscription revenue decreased 1% due to a 12% decline in affiliate revenue, partly offset by streaming revenue growth of 12%. Streaming subscribers grew 2% year- over-year and sequentially, and we ended the second quarter with 10.4 million streaming subs. Streaming revenue growth in the quarter benefited from the implementation of recent rate initiatives. Despite two price increases in the second quarter, we still saw year-over-year and sequential improvement in retention and engagement across our portfolio of streaming services. In July, we implemented a $1 rate event at HIDIVE, and performance to date at this service is encouraging, with retention tracking in line with our expectations. With all planned rate events for the year now in flight, we anticipate an acceleration in quarterly streaming revenue growth as the year progresses, and we continue to expect our full-year streaming revenue growth rate will be in the low to mid-teens. For the second quarter, Domestic Operations advertising revenue decreased 18% year-over-year due to linear ratings declines and lower marketplace pricing, including lower digital CPMs. The ad market remains challenging for everyone, but we remain encouraged by our upfront performance, the strength of our programming and our significant advanced and digital advertising capabilities. Content licensing revenue was $84 million for the quarter, reflecting the timing and availability of deliveries in the period. Our second quarter results reflected continued healthy demand for our high-quality content, including the sale of our music catalog and executive producer fees related to the Apple TV+ Silo, as you know, licensing revenues often vary quarter-to-quarter due to the timing of agreements and delivery schedules. Regarding the quarterly cadence of licensing revenue, we anticipate that the third quarter will represent the lowest licensing revenue quarter for the year, and that revenue will pick back up in the fourth quarter. This is typical timing variability, driven by the cadence of our delivery schedule. We continue to anticipate approximately $250 million of Domestic Operations content licensing revenue for the year. Domestic Operations AOI was $126 million for the quarter, representing a decrease of 19%. The decrease in AOI was largely driven by continued linear revenue headwinds. Streaming and content licensing revenue strength provided a partial offset in the second quarter. Moving to our International segment. Second quarter International revenues were $76 million. Excluding prior-period advertising revenues related to a retroactive adjustment and the favorable impact of foreign exchange in the current period, International revenues decreased 6%. Subscription revenue, excluding FX, decreased 9% due to the nonrenewal with Movistar in Spain, which occurred in the fourth quarter of 2024. Advertising revenue, excluding the prior-period retroactive adjustment and the favorable FX impact in the current period, increased 2%. The International AOI for the second quarter was $15 million with a 20% margin. Excluding the prior period adjustment and the beneficial FX impact in the current period, International AOI decreased 15%. Moving to the balance sheet. The strength of our balance sheet remains a focus as we reduce gross debt and extend maturities. Proactive and prudent management of our balance sheet provides improved flexibility today and in the future while allowing us to focus on the continued evolution of our business. We believe that our securities offer attractive opportunities to deploy cash opportunistically across the capital structure to create meaningful equity value. So far this year, total debt reduction has exceeded $400 million. This includes the retirement of $699 million of our unsecured senior notes due 2029 at a significant discount to par and the early prepayment of $90 million of our Term Loan A. Through July, we've captured approximately $138 million of debt discount. Adjusting for transactions that closed in July, we ended the quarter with pro forma net debt of approximately $1.3 billion and a consolidated net leverage ratio of 2.7x, a reduction from 2.9x in the previous quarter. We have $875 million of total liquidity, including approximately $700 million of pro forma cash on the balance sheet and our undrawn $175 million revolver. During the second quarter, we repurchased 1.6 million shares of our Class A common stock for approximately $10 million. As of June 30, we had $125 million remaining on our current authorization. On the topic of capital allocation, our philosophy remains consistent. First, we look to support the business by creating and acquiring compelling programming that resonates with our audiences while maintaining healthy levels of cash flow generation. Second, we remain focused on reducing gross debt and extending debt maturities. Lastly, M&A, share repurchases and dividends will be opportunistic and measured and remain further down our priority list. Moving to our 2025 outlook, we remain confident in our ability to drive free cash flow. As I mentioned earlier, we've raised our free cash flow outlook and now anticipate approximately $250 million of free cash flow for the year. Our increased outlook contemplates our strong year-to-date cash flow performance, efficiency in our programming and cash tax savings largely related to full interest deductibility from the One Big Beautiful Bill. We continue to expect consolidated revenue of approximately $2.3 billion, reflecting continued linear headwinds, partially offset by increasingly meaningful streaming growth and continue to expect consolidated AOI in the range of $400 million to $420 million. We continue to anticipate year-over-year increases in technical and operating expenses as well as increased SG&A expenses, largely driven by streaming-related marketing. Regarding the quarterly cadence of AOI for the remainder of the year due to the timing of revenue, including content licensing, we anticipate the AOI in the third quarter represent the low point for the year. The fourth quarter will be the first full quarter reflecting all 2025 price increases at our streaming services. We expect fourth quarter AOI will benefit from accelerating streaming revenue growth and the timing of content licensing revenues. As such, in absolute dollar terms, we expect fourth quarter AOI to be consistent with second quarter AOI. While the operating environment remains ever changing, we remain highly focused on the variables within our control. We continue to execute our consistent strategy of making great content, distributing that content broadly, generating meaningful free cash flow and being prudent with how we allocate our capital. We are well capitalized with a large cash balance, a long-term view of the business and a clear strategic plan. At the same time, we are nimble and opportunistic as we create and curate the high-quality content that engages fans and build valuable franchises. With that, I'll hand the call back to Nick.