AMC Global Media is nearing a deal for the next round of rights to The Walking Dead, with the company looking to keep a share of the action and several large players in pursuit.
The flagship iteration of the franchise, a cornerstone for the company, had its finale in 2022. It remains popular on streaming and spawned multiple spinoffs.
“We’ve been really excited about the inbound for discussion on the licensing rights for The Walking Dead,” CEO Kristin Dolan told Wall Street analysts during the company’s first-quarter earnings call Friday. “We’re really looking at every scenario. There’s a variety of ways to look at it. We definitely feel it’s important to keep some of the content for ourselves co-exclusively, so we’re emphasizing the fact that we’re looking predominantly a co-exclusive deals, but there are some very large and enthusiastic partners in the bidding process right now. So, we’re really looking at any variety of constructs, but the key thing for us is co-exclusivity.”
Asked whether the company would do a comprehensive deal with one partner or try to break the rights into smaller pieces, perhaps in individual global territories, Dolan said all options remain on the table. “We may chunk it up, may all go to one partner, domestic versus international. There’s many, many ways to skin this cat,” she said.
While valuations for household-name series IP have come down to earth a bit since the frenzy around Friends, South Park and The Office during the streaming explosion several years ago, The Walking Dead rights will surely fetch several hundred million dollars. Estimated figures were not part of Friday’s discussion on the earnings call. Along with streaming, the show’s linear ratings held up well even as cord-cutting eroded the overall footprint of cable TV.
Names of bidders were also not named, but Netflix has had a significant relationship with AMC, one analyst noted. The streaming giant has helped lift ratings for a number of the company’s original series as they stream seasons in the leadup to new episodes returning to the air. It also put Mad Men back into the zeitgeist a decade after its series finale. AMC has also experimented with a major activation on HBO Max, and continues to lean into its “channels” relationships with Amazon, Roku and other streaming providers.
Kim Kelleher, AMC Global Media‘s president and chief commercial officer, said more factors than just financial payments come into play with the company’s licensing deals. “Of course we consider the customer experience and discoverability when we’re looking for what our co-exclusive partnerships are going to be going forward. We have several partners around the world for The Walking Dead right now, and we’re engaged with all of them about the future.”
The comments came after the company reported mixed quarterly results, with revenue slipping 2% to $542.1 million and earnings shrinking from 52 cents a share a year ago to 8 cents per share on an adjusted basis. Both metrics beat analysts’ consensus estimates. Streaming revenue rose 11% to $174 million, largely due to price increases, with subscriber levels dipping 3% to 10.1 million.
Results from the anticipated Walking Dead licensing deal are not factored into the company’s forecast for operating income in 2026, executives said on the call.
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