Evan Adlman, the SVP of advanced advertising and digital partnerships at AMC Networks, joined Cheddar News to discuss how the television network can keep up in the crowded streaming space. "I think it's inherent to the industry. Everybody is seeing the same shift from time-based viewing to binge-watching," he noted.

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How AMC Networks Can Keep Pace Amid Streaming Shift

the streaming landscape is changing rapidly as more ad supported and free platforms emerged. Cheddar news Senior reporter Michelle castello spoke with Evan Evan Edelman from AMC Networks about the future of content and how the company aims to capitalize on viewers using traditional linear television and streaming. Take a look engaging and creating programming and partnerships with new platforms such as Samsung Tv plus the consumption changes that we're seeing amongst our viewership I don't think is inherent to AMC. I think it's inherent to the industry. Everybody is seeing the same shift from time based viewing to binge watching. So we use a lot of platforms that enable us to get data on our viewership and understand when people are stacking their set top box with DVR episodes of our programming binge watching or looking to access our content, video on demand or also through these new platforms fast, for example, like on Tv plus, understanding where the viewers are and how they Consume content on each of these platforms is crucial because they are all different. So we are the we're lucky to have partnerships with about seven different fast and a Vod platforms that allows us to see the audiences separately rather than owning a platform, which would only allow us to see how our audience produced. You know, sort of views are content within one environment. Now. Are you noticing that people want to watch different kind of programming on streaming as opposed to linear or traditional tv. We are, I think there's still viewers that like to sit down with the remote and tune in for the time that the show is going to air we noticed that something around 20 to 30% of our viewership these days are watching it on demand within three days of the program airing there's other viewership that are watching it maybe sometimes after three days because they're watching it on their DVR um recording on their set top box. So there's there's new behaviors that we're trying to sort of adapt to to make sure we continue to deliver the right programming to the right audience and how they want to watch it. Now. You work with a lot of free ad supported television platforms or known as fast platforms and how can they differentiate themselves for different viewers but also gain new audiences and still appeal to their traditional audience. I think there's one thing that all of the platforms have in common and it's the ability to report and leverage their A. C. R. Data so the ability to have an understanding and track viewership consumption on that device. And the more times even me as an individual when I turn on my television, if there's recommendations from these platforms that are similar to the content that I was watching before I turned it off, it's more interesting. It's an easier way of discovering what is out there for me to access because let's be honest there's a ton of content out there and somehow you know AMC Networks does a great job of separating ourselves with the niche programming that we have. But when you go to a free platform like Samsung tv plus, there's just so much to choose from. I wanna make sure I'm actually being provided something that's of interest. And I think that's a that's a control that each uh hardware company has. And it works well for the viewer because I can be recommended programs that are my interest and then works great for the advertiser because they can communicate with that household in a unique way. Let's speak about that advertiser and the ad supported system. So one thing that we notice now is that you can skip through the ads but we're seeing a lot of these ad supported systems and platforms on the rise. Do you think customers are willing to go sit through those commercials, sit through those product placements in order to get a cheaper or free experience? I don't think it's something that we can steer away from. I think it's part of the nature of of accessing content in the ways that consumers are used to it. And you know, I don't know if the average consumer can afford to pay multiple subscriptions at the price that they're currently at to have that many different access points to content. So at some point advertising has to play a role. So all demographics and all households can have access to view it. So why is fast and advertise a perfect marriage for content and advertisers trying to reach today's viewer? Well it fast or C. T. V. As a whole right. The ability to advertise on a connected device gives the advertiser and the programmer access to anonymized viewership data that they haven't had in the past when they bought traditional broadcast or cable tv. An advertiser in the past would go to a programmer and either by a day part so a block of hours during the day or they would buy a demographic. So adults 18 to 49. That's pretty widespread. That's why maybe commercials have been sort of invasive to the experience in the past because everybody is receiving the same message when it comes to streaming and CTV and connected devices. There's anonymized data that an advertiser can use to target a household. So if I'm selling a car let me make sure I'm delivering the car message to a household that either has a least that's coming up to expire or registration that's coming up to expire or some type of you know data point that's available to the advertiser to hone in on that as well as their viewership consumption. So if they're constantly watching horror or drama or you know news for example the advertiser has the ability to customize the delivery of their head down to the household level. And I think that alone is a great marriage between the content provider and the advertiser as well as the device because it hasn't been available at that granularity in the past. So, final question, what do you think is the biggest trend in television for 2023? I think the biggest trend is the amount of destinations or endpoints that a consumer can watch a piece of content. And as we develop programming at AMC, and we always have to think about the mobile device, the tablet, the television, the linear network, our um spot apps. So our subscription based video on demand products that we have, there's a lot out there for us to think about. So I think as the Tv industry expands in 23 it's gonna be more important to understand the environments that consumers can access your content.