DENVER, Colo.—In advance of the 2024 IBC Show, Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced a new multi-year agreement with AMC Networks to serve as its centralized video platform for Managed Channel Origination (MCO) and Video On Demand (VOD). 

CTS will also serve as the primary video archive to enforce viewing rights and availability of AMC Networks’ vast library of premium shows, films, and brands across third-party content distribution partners.

Under terms of the new agreement, AMC Networks will use CTS’ Managed Channel Origination (MCO) service to ingest, manage, and distribute linear TV, on demand, and OTT video content across North America and South America for 28 channels including AMC, AMC+, BBC AMERICA, IFC, Shudder, SundanceTV, We TV, and others. 

In addition, CTS’ VOD service will be used to deliver on demand and OTT video content to MVPD, vMVPD and OTT partners globally. 

CTS’ Managed Channel Origination delivers a fully managed 24x7 service aimed at improving operational efficiency, reducing capital expenses, and future-proofing customers’ ability to monetize world-class viewing experiences at scale. CTS’ MCO and VOD capabilities provide media companies, content owners, and broadcasters with a platform for unified video workflow from content ingest through delivery, the company said. 

“AMC Networks is home to many of the best stories, characters, and brands across TV and film, and a premier destination for global fan communities,” said Bart Spriester, senior vice president and general manager of streaming, broadcast, & advertising for Comcast Technology Solutions. “We’re honored that AMC Networks will rely on us to help streamline their efforts to reach and monetize audiences across the Americas and around the globe. At Comcast Technology Solutions, our mission is to help leading media companies, like AMC Networks, reduce workflow complexity and redundancy, lower capital and operational expenses, and deliver exceptional quality viewing that today’s consumers demand across their screens of choice." 

"During this time of evolution and change across our industry, AMC Networks is laser focused on achieving the highest levels of efficiency and service quality across our video portfolio,” said Stephanie Mitchko, executive vice president, global media operations and technology at AMC Networks. “Whether it’s to support of our premium channels, our archives, or distribution of our acclaimed original franchises such as The Walking Dead Universe and the Anne Rice Immortal Universe, we believe that Comcast Technology Solutions provides us with the right technological backend for our future. CTS is committed to helping us shift towards a single ingest model, consolidate workflows, and manage our linear TV and VOD efforts across our networks and our third-party distribution partners. By centralizing with CTS, we expect to streamline operations, automate highly complex tasks, and free up valuable resources to focus more on creating and monetizing our extensive programming assets.”

CTS' Managed Channel Origination provides media companies with a unified workflow, from content acquisition through delivery, with 24x7 service level agreements (SLAs). In addition, CTS’ VOD services enable MVPDs, virtual MVPDs, and OTT providers to launch and manage their own SVOD, TVOD, and AVOD offerings. It provides companies the ability to ingest, store, process, distribute, and monetize their video assets to set-top boxes and connected devices while optimizing C3/C7/D4/D7 windows.

At the 2024 IBC Show, CTS will showcase its solutions for streaming, broadcast, entertainment, and connectivity experiences in Hall 5, Stand C80. Experts will be on-hand to discuss CTS’ full suite of products for content and streaming providers, MVPDs, and advertisers. 

In addition, Peter Gibson, VP of Product & Marketing at Comcast Technology Solutions will also present on “The New Age of Cloud TV” on Friday, September 13 at 12:15 p.m. on the IBC Content Everywhere Stage. 

To learn more about Comcast Technology Solutions’ entire portfolio of solutions, visit: https://www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com/our-products.

For more information about AMC Networks visit https://www.amcnetworks.com/ 

NEW YORK—As the ultimate destination for storytelling, AMC Networks operates in more than 125 countries worldwide and is the home to several iconic brands across television, independent film, production, distribution, gaming and publishing. We’re behind some of the most celebrated and acclaimed television content, such as the TV series “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.” 

Bringing these productions to market requires a stop in AMC’s New York City headquarters, where teams of producers, editors, and designers craft ancillary and promo material for use across a diverse delivery landscape. Until recently, the technology portion of that operation consumed over 45,000 square feet of real estate. So, when Covid forced everyone to work from home, there were a lot of empty rooms.  

Getting Started
After some initial experimentation, we decided to adopt HP’s RGS app, which allowed editors to work on the same Avid Media Composer PC they were used to. In short order, our operation was humming along with no loss of efficiency or creative quality.

As the pandemic wore on—and with success of work-from-home—it became apparent that a permanent remote editorial strategy should be considered. This would entail virtualization of the Avid PCs and sunsetting most of the real estate. No strangers to virtualization—we had already successfully virtualized our Avid backend systems—we reasoned that it was time to virtualize the Media Composers as well. A cluster of 14 Dell servers were deployed, each fitted with five Nvidia T4 cards and 100G networking. Nutanix AHV virtualizes the 100 VM Avid environment, and Teradici PCoiP provides the link to the home.

AMC’s editors are accustomed to working exclusively with hi-res media, so what is seen at home must be largely artifact-free. Unfortunately, we immediately encountered drifting audio sync and random video stuttering. Not being a turnkey system, troubleshooting was a painstaking process but over time we qualified every link in the chain and developed our own test movies to aid in troubleshooting. 

The breakthrough came from a Teradici software engineer who created a system that allowed graphical plotting of our visual experience. This led to a fix for the audio sync issue, as well as improvements to playback smoothness. The result of Teradici’s efforts now fuels our collaboration with Avid on improvements to the Media Composer’s Media Player. 

The Private Cloud Payoff
Media Composer has always been at the center of our post-production operation, and once the planned improvements to Avid’s Media Player are realized and—except for very specific workflows and finishing operations— working remotely via our private cloud will be virtually (pun intended) as good as being on-premise.

From an engineering perspective, virtualization provides agile deployment, simplified maintenance, and significant overall cost savings. From the user’s perspective, virtualization provides high-powered, consistent performance across all 100 Media Composer seats, as well as the flexibility to work from anywhere and at any time. And from a producer’s perspective, this environment affords the opportunity to engage with editorial talent across the globe.

The 45,000 square feet of real estate referred to earlier is ready for its next life. And though our move to a private cloud was instigated by the pandemic, we’ll likely look back and realize that this paradigm shift was all but inevitable.  

More information is available at www.avid.com.

NEW YORK—AMC Networks has announced an October launch for the ad-supported version of its streaming service AMC+ along with Q1 2023 financial results that showed its streaming subscribers declined from 11.8 million in Q4, 2022 to 11.5 million in Q1, 2023. 

Streaming revenue was, however, up 29% year over year, primarily driven by year-over-year streaming subscriber growth and 2022 price increases and streaming subscribers grew 22% from Q1 2022 to March 31, 2023. 

In the Q1 2023 earnings call CEO Kristin Dolan stressed the company’s strategy of making “our content available across the entire distribution ecosystem.”

“As the models of content monetization continue to evolve, another advantage we have is a broad distribution footprint that spans linear television networks, our own digital and streaming platforms, and third-party CTV or fast platforms,” Dolan said. “With the addition of an ad-supported tier of our flagship AMC+ streaming service later this year, our entire distribution ecosystem will be ad-supported, providing us with important new opportunities to drive revenue and grow our business.”

Dolan declined to discuss pricing or content for the ad-supported tier, which was announced at the company’s upfronts, but said: “We're looking at an October launch for that tier. We see it as a great opportunity to continue to super serve and expand our audiences, give more choice to consumers, and obviously provide a more holistic and robust advertising solution for our current and future advertisers.”

Along with the mixed streaming results, AMC announced that advertising revenues decreased 20% to $161 million due to anticipated linear ratings declines, softness in the advertising market and fewer original programming episodes within the quarter, partly offset by digital and advanced advertising revenue growth.

NEW YORK—FreeWheel has teamed up with AMC Networks to introduce a new, fully self-service linear addressable solution. 

The launch is notable because it will help programmers monetize previously hard-to-access inventory for monetization purposes and streamline the management for multi-screen campaigns.

It also illustrates the growing importance of addressable advertising. 

According to research from Go Addressable, an industry initiative to advance the adoption and scale of addressable advertising, nearly 90% of advertisers agree that addressable is important to the future of TV advertising, and one in three addressable TV advertisers plan to increase their spending this year.

After successful addressable advertising trial campaigns in late 2020 and 2021, AMC is offering three national addressable slots in every hour of original programming on AMC and WE tv, with Amazon on board as the first advertising partner to take advantage of the opportunity to more effectively reach consumers with relevant advertising through this enhanced level of targeting.

“As we are demonstrating with our own inventory every day, addressable advertising has arrived, and now the next step is making it even more widely available and easier to buy,” said Evan Adlman, senior vice president of advanced advertising and digital partnerships for AMC Networks. “We are thrilled FreeWheel agreed to partner with us to expand access to this superior approach to television advertising, unlocking inventory that allows businesses to deliver more relevant and targeted messages to viewers across the country.”

FreeWheel is currently working with Canoe, an industry joint venture formed by Charter, Comcast and Cox, to introduce this new solution with AMC Networks. Moving forward, it will be available through other programmers later this year.

With this new offering, advertisers can now:

• Make real-time decisioning and optimization decisions across previously siloed supply to improve audience reach and monetization.
• Utilize a self-service solution to give programmers control of their inventory.
• Use an automated schedule ingest to identify addressable supply and capture relevant business rules (e.g., industry categories, SASO), thereby reducing the need to identify spots in multiple systems.

“We’re approaching an inflection point in addressable advertising. Interest and spend in this sector is growing, and until now, programmers have been constrained by a lack of scale,” said Mark McKee, general manager, FreeWheel. “At FreeWheel, our purpose is to better connect buyers and sellers with solutions that make TV advertising more efficient, and we believe this new solution will go a long way in achieving that goal for linear addressable and the industry.”

NEW YORK & PHILADELPHIA—AMC Networks and Comcast Cable have announced a new distribution agreement that includes continued carriage of both linear networks and streaming services on Comcast’s Xfinity TV, broadband and XClass platforms. 

“We are excited to continue and also expand our longstanding partnership with Comcast through a new agreement that includes not only continued carriage of our cable networks, but also our fast-growing targeted streaming services including AMC+, which was made available first to Xfinity customers,” said Josh Reader, president of distribution and development for AMC Networks. “2022 will be the biggest year of original programming in our company’s history, and Comcast’s Xfinity customers will have a front row seat for every second of it.”

“We’ve had a longstanding partnership with AMC Networks and are thrilled to continue it to provide our Xfinity customers with access to their content, including their growing library of original programming, across our industry-leading platforms,” said Rebecca Heap, senior vice president, consumer products & propositions, Comcast Cable.

AMC’s streaming brands include AMC+, Acorn TV, Shudder, Sundance Now, ALLBLK, and the anime-focused HIDIVE streaming service; its linear networks are AMC, BBC America (operated through a joint venture with BBC Studios), IFC, SundanceTV, WE tv and IFC Films. 

NEW YORK—AMC Networks Inc. has completed the acquisition of Houston-based Sentai Holdings, LLC (“Sentai”), a major global supplier of anime content and official anime merchandise, that operates the anime-focused HIDIVE direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service. 

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

The deal fits in with AMC’s push to expand its offering of targeted streaming services, which now includes Sentai’s HIDIVE streaming service, AMC+, Acorn TV, Shudder, Sundance Now and ALLBLK.

AMC has forecast that its targeted streaming portfolio will have exceeded nine million paid subscribers by year-end 2021, with 20-25 million paid subscribers by 2025.

It also reflects growing interest in the anime sector, with Sony, and Cinedigm acquiring anime players in 2021. 

“With a seasoned team, strong content and direct-to-consumer offerings for fans around the world, Sentai is a key global player in anime,” said AMC Networks interim CEO Matt Blank. “This acquisition builds on AMC Networks’ already strong IP and franchises, and furthers our targeted streaming strategy of super-serving passionate audiences with content depth, curation and community. With the addition of Sentai, we see an even greater opportunity to build on AMC Networks’ position as the global leader in targeted streaming, as we continue to grow a sustainable and long-term profitable streaming business that will be transformational for our company.”

John Ledford, Sentai’s Founder stated, “We are thrilled by AMC Networks’ acquisition and are excited to be a part of their growth strategy. This acquisition will not change Sentai’s mission to deliver the most exciting anime content to audiences around the world — it will expand it greatly and will give our content businesses more distribution, more partnerships, more scale and more reach. I could not be more pleased.”

Sentai’s executive management team of Ledford, Griffin Vance, and Paul Clinkscales, will continue on in senior roles.

NEW YORK—TV measurement and analytics company 605 is launching its new, next-generation platform for national TV networks, advertisers and agencies, dubbed 605 Platform.

605 Platform is a web-based application that enables advanced measurement and analysis of TV programs and advertisements across linear, over-the-air, DVR and set-top box VOD. The system can combine and match client viewership data across the various datasets, with an “Identity Layer” allowing for users to select, activate and target first- or third-party audience segments or datasets.

The web-based dashboard for the 605 Platform supports planning, posting, measurement and analysis of programming or advertisements based on demographics, intent, psychographic, purchase or CRM audience segmentation. Users can expand viewership periods for coverage of recent viewership or as far back as two years, per 605. An API is also available for integration with in-house and third-party tools.

The 605 Platform can be used on its own or with other measurement tools for better understanding and targeting of specific audiences, the company said.

“We are delivering a currency grade view of the traditional TV ecosystem that makes it actionable in ways that were never before possible,” said Noah Levine, chief revenue office at 605.

605 Platform already has its first pair of customers, as AMC Networks and Discovery have agreed to serve as the first official programming clients.

For more information, visit www.605.tv.

NEW YORK—After AMC’s series ‘Mad Men’ concluded earlier this year, which centered on the ad industry of the 60s, the network is making a different kind of ad deal, announcing it will go with WideOrbit’s WO Programmatic TV for the programmatic advertising sales system for AMC brands. AMC Networks will offer a percentage of its TV advertising inventory across AMC, BBC AMERICA, IFC, SundanceTV, and WE tv through the WideOrbit platform.

“Our programmatic advertising initiative addresses our clients’ desire to apply their own data to more effectively target our networks’ valuable audiences,” said Arlene Manos, president, national ad sales, AMC Networks.

“This partnership will enable our clients to use their customer data to select programming in premium environments across AMC Networks in more precise and automated ways,” said Todd Gordon, executive vice president, U.S. director at MAGNA GLOBAL.

WideOrbit is a provider of advertising management technology for cable networks, and local TV and radio stations. It is headquartered in San Francisco.