AMC Networks Entertainment Chief Dan McDermott On Navigating End Times For ‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Better Call Saul’ And ‘Killing Eve’ And How He Competes With Bigger Rivals
deadline.comAMC Networks studio and entertainment chief Dan McDermott said the company’s modest scale, multiplatform distribution and talent relationships have enabled it to compete against an array of deeper-pocketed rivals.During a fireside chat at the company’s programming summit in Brooklyn, McDermott also addressed the end this year of longtime programming pillars The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul and Killing Eve.“Every great show, every great experience at some point comes to an end,” he said of the series finales. “We’re so grateful to have had these shows on our platforms.
They helped define AMC as a home for premium content.”McDermott said developing worthy follow-ups to that potent trio is simply “my job.” Assessing the development slate and library holdings when he started at the company in 2020, he said, was a helpful start, but even more determinate was the company’s decision shortly after his arrival to fully embrace streaming.
With AMC+, Shudder, Acorn TV and other niche outlets, the company has focused on specific target audiences in streaming, but that narrowness is starting to accrue larger subscriber bases and will outdo linear in terms of revenue in the coming years.
The company has said it will have between 20 million and 25 million streaming subscribers by 2025 and McDermott said the base will be 40 million to 50 million not long thereafter.The interplay between shows designed for streaming (like Moonhaven on AMC+) versus larger properties capable of premiering across both streaming and linear (like Ann Rice’s Interview with a Vampire) offers increasing advantages, McDermott argued.
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