AMC Networks Inc (Pre-Reincorporation) (AMCX) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the AMC Networks' Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 AMC Networks 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Nick Seibert, Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations.

現在我想將會議交給今天的發言人，企業發展和投資者關係副總裁 Nick Seibert。

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the AMC Networks Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Joining us this morning are Kristin Dolan, Chief Executive Officer; Patrick O'Connell, Chief Financial Officer; Kim Kelleher, Chief Commercial Officer; and Dan McDermott, President of Entertainment and AMC Studios. Today's press release is available on our website at amcnetworks.com. We will begin with prepared remarks, and then we'll open the call for questions.

謝謝。早安，歡迎參加 AMC Networks 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。今天早上加入我們的是執行長 Kristin Dolan；派崔克‧奧康奈爾，財務長； Kim Kelleher，商務長；以及娛樂和 AM​​C 工作室總裁 Dan McDermott。今天的新聞稿可在我們的網站 amcnetworks.com 上取得。我們將從準備好的發言開始，然後開始提問。

Today's call may include certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. Please refer to AMC Networks' SEC filings for a discussion of risks and uncertainties. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements made on this call today.

今天的電話會議可能包含 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的某些前瞻性陳述。任何此類前瞻性陳述都不是對未來績效或結果的保證，並且涉及可能導致實際結果不同的風險和不確定性。請參閱 AMC Networks 向 SEC 提交的文件，以了解有關風險和不確定性的討論。該公司不承擔更新今天本次電話會議中所做的任何前瞻性陳述的義務。

We will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. The required definitions and reconciliations can be found in today's press release.

我們將討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。所需的定義和調節可以在今天的新聞稿中找到。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Kristin.

說到這裡，我想把電話轉給克莉絲汀。

Thank you, Nick, and thanks, everyone, for joining us. It's been about 18 months since I became CEO of AMC Networks, and I am proud of the work we've done to orient the company around our popular high-quality content and unique advantages even during a changing and uncertain time in media.

謝謝你，尼克，也謝謝大家加入我們。我擔任AMC Networks 執行長已有約18 個月了，我對我們所做的工作感到自豪，即使在媒體不斷變化和不確定的時期，我們也以流行的高品質內容和獨特優勢為公司定位。

We're pleased with our results in the third quarter. I'd like to note the significant progress we've made against one of our major priorities, generating free cash flow. Year-to-date, free cash flow is already $293 million, and we're well on our way to delivering our stated goal of approximately $0.5 billion in cumulative free cash flow over two years.

我們對第三季的業績感到滿意。我想指出我們在主要優先事項之一（產生自由現金流）方面取得的重大進展。今年迄今為止，自由現金流達到 2.93 億美元，我們正在順利實現兩年內累積自由現金流約為 5 億美元的既定目標。

We're focused on three key strategic pillars: programming, partnerships, and profitability. During the quarter, we made significant advancements across all three areas. I'll start with partnerships.

我們專注於三個關鍵策略支柱：規劃、合作夥伴關係和獲利能力。本季度，我們在所有三個領域都取得了重大進展。我將從夥伴關係開始。

As we navigate a complex media environment, our partnerships have never been more important. I'm particularly pleased to report that over the past several months, we've renewed several major affiliate agreements, including an early renewal with our partners at Charter. Our new long-term contract is consistent with Charter's strategy of maximizing customer value by combining linear networks and streaming services into the Spectrum video product and now includes the ad-supported version of AMC+ for all Charter video subscribers at no additional cost to the customer.

當我們應對複雜的媒體環境時，我們的合作關係變得前所未有的重要。我特別高興地向大家報告，在過去的幾個月裡，我們續簽了幾項主要的附屬協議，包括與 Charter 的合作夥伴提前續約。我們新的長期合約符合 Charter 透過將線性網路和串流媒體服務結合到 Spectrum 視訊產品中來最大化客戶價值的策略，現在包括為所有 Charter 視訊訂戶提供的 AMC+ 廣告支援版本，無需向客戶收取額外費用。

In late August, we kicked off an innovative partnership with Netflix to make prior seasons of 15 AMC series available to the company's US subscribers for the next year. This curated selection of shows is branded the AMC Collection, and we've been very pleased by its performance on this massive streaming platform. Almost immediately after the launch, we saw shows like Dark Winds, A Discovery of Witches, and Ann Rice's Mayfair Witches hit the Netflix top 10 chart and stay there for weeks.

8 月下旬，我們與 Netflix 建立了創新合作夥伴關係，明年將向該公司的美國訂閱者提供 15 部 AMC 系列劇集的前幾季。這些精選節目被冠以 AMC Collection 品牌，我們對它在這個大型串流媒體平台上的表現感到非常滿意。幾乎在發布後不久，我們就看到《黑暗之風》、《女巫的發現》和安·賴斯的《梅菲爾女巫》等節目就躋身 Netflix 排行榜前 10 名，並保持數週之久。

Overall, the shows in the AMC collection have garnered significant engagement with Netflix viewers, and we are seeing the benefits of this increased exposure on our own platforms as well. The second season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is available to stream only on AMC+. And since Season 1 became available on Netflix, we saw acquisition activity related to the show more than double on our platform. And since Season 1 of Ann Rice's interview with the Vampire became available on Netflix, AMC+ acquisitions driven by Season 2 increased nearly 4 times from the pre-Netflix baseline. We expect this dynamic will continue to play out with upcoming new seasons of other series in the partnership like Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches, Dark Winds and The Terror.

總體而言，AMC 系列中的節目贏得了 Netflix 觀眾的廣泛關注，我們也看到了在我們自己的平台上增加曝光度所帶來的好處。《陰屍路：達裡爾迪克森》第二季僅在 AMC+ 上播出。自從第一季在 Netflix 上線以來，我們的平台上與該劇相關的收購活動增加了一倍以上。自從安·賴斯採訪吸血鬼的第一季在 Netflix 上播出以來，第二季推動的 AMC+ 收購量比 Netflix 推出之前的基線增長了近 4 倍。我們預計這種動力將繼續在即將推出的新一季的合作關係中繼續發揮作用，例如安妮賴斯的《梅菲爾女巫》、《黑暗之風》和《恐怖》。

In January, we'll add two new series from our Walking Dead Universe to the AMC Collection on Netflix for the first time, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live and The Walking Dead: Dead City. It's so gratifying to continue to see the Walking Dead Universe content perform so well on Netflix, led by the original series as we prepare for the return of those US rights to AMC Networks in just about two years.

一月份，我們將首次將《陰屍路》宇宙中的兩部新劇集添加到 Netflix 的 AMC 系列中：《陰屍路：活著的人》和《陰屍路：死亡之城》。我們很高興看到《陰屍路》宇宙內容在 Netflix 上繼續表現出色，以原創影集為首，我們正準備在短短兩年內將這些美國版權歸還給 AMC Networks。

Amazon remains a very significant partner for us on a number of fronts. In addition to offering AMC+ and other targeted streaming services on Prime video channels, Amazon recently launched 15 of our FAST channels on Amazon platforms, formerly known as Freeview. We were very early to recognize the opportunities around FAST and CTV and the importance of these new platforms to reach younger viewers and supplement our linear distribution and ad sales efforts. We now have 18 channels that are live on 12 different platforms with 130 active channel feeds in all. Our presence in FAST, along with the ad-supported version of AMC+ launched last year is helping us navigate the shift from linear and emphasize the importance of cross-platform buying to reach target viewers.

亞馬遜在許多方面仍然是我們非常重要的合作夥伴。除了在 Prime 視訊頻道上提供 AMC+ 和其他有針對性的串流媒體服務外，亞馬遜最近還在亞馬遜平台上推出了 15 個 FAST 頻道（以前稱為 Freeview）。我們很早就認識到 FAST 和 CTV 帶來的機遇，以及這些新平台對於吸引年輕觀眾以及補充我們的線性發行和廣告銷售工作的重要性。我們現在有 18 個頻道在 12 個不同的平台上直播，總共有 130 個活躍頻道。我們在 FAST 中的存在以及去年推出的 AMC+ 廣告支援版本正在幫助我們實現從線性的轉變，並強調跨平台購買對於吸引目標觀眾的重要性。

We plan to launch ad-supported versions of our other targeted streaming services, starting with Shudder. Combined with our advanced tools, including addressable programmatic and data insights from our Audience+ platform, which helps advertisers find viewers of our content wherever they are watching, we have the ability to reach the largest ad-supported audiences in our history. We are also achieving a higher degree of relevance in targeting than ever before.

我們計劃推出其他目標串流服務的廣告支援版本，首先是 Shudder。結合我們的先進工具，包括來自 Audience+ 平台的可尋址程序化和數據洞察，幫助廣告商在任何地方觀看我們的內容的觀眾，我們有能力接觸到我們歷史上最大的廣告支持的受眾。我們在定位方面也取得了比以往更高程度的相關性。

This month, we launched a content sampling pop-up with MGM+ that brings first seasons of nine of our series to MGM+ subscribers and brings first seasons of nine of their series, including MGM+ hit series from to AMC+ for the next two months. Amazon's Prime video channels currently offers an AMC+ MGM+ bundle for just $10.99 a month. So we think this sampling arrangement is a great way to raise awareness of the programming on both services and attract new customers.

本月，我們與MGM+ 合作推出了一個內容採樣彈出窗口，為MGM+ 訂閱者帶來了我們的九部劇集的第一季，並在接下來的兩個月內在AMC+ 上帶來了他們的九部集的第一季，其中包括MGM+ 熱門影集。亞馬遜的 Prime 視訊頻道目前提供 AMC+ MGM+ 套裝包，每月僅需 10.99 美元。因此，我們認為這種抽樣安排是提高這兩項服務的節目知名度並吸引新客戶的好方法。

We also have a promotion with Verizon in market right now, offering Verizon Wireless customers access to the ad-free version of AMC+ for six months at no cost to the customer, after which it rolls to the regular monthly price.

我們目前也在市場上與 Verizon 進行促銷活動，為 Verizon Wireless 客戶提供六個月免費的 AMC+ 無廣告版本，之後將恢復到每月的正常價格。

We continue to focus on making great content and running our business efficiently as the industry reorients itself around changing consumer behavior. We see significant opportunities to participate in the new offerings of our long-time partners like Comcast and Charter Xumo, which Cost is now deploying across its footprint as well. Another good example of this is the recent agreement with Comcast Technology Solutions to manage most of our back-end content distribution, which provides access to the speed and scale of Comcast best-in-class technology while also increasing the predictability of our cost to serve.

隨著產業圍繞著不斷變化的消費者行為重新定位，我們將繼續專注於製作精彩內容並有效地經營我們的業務。我們看到了參與 Comcast 和 Charter Xumo 等長期合作夥伴的新產品的重大機會，Cost 目前也在其業務範圍內部署這些產品。另一個很好的例子是最近與康卡斯特技術解決方案公司達成協議，管理我們的大部分後端內容分發，這使我們能夠獲得康卡斯特一流技術的速度和規模，同時也提高了我們服務成本的可預測性。

As I noted earlier, our strong programming continues to engage audiences, and we are seeing momentum across all of our platforms. AMC+ is setting viewership records with its most watched series in its five-year history early this year with The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. AMC+ has also had two of its three most watched returning seasons ever this year with Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire Season 2 and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Daryl is on track to become number 2's most watched original series this year on both AMC and AMC+ behind only The Ones Who Live.

正如我之前指出的，我們強大的節目繼續吸引觀眾，我們在所有平台上都看到了勢頭。今年年初，AMC+ 以《陰屍路：活生生的人》創下了五年歷史上收視率最高的連續劇收視紀錄。AMC+ 今年收視率最高的三季回歸中還有兩季是安妮賴斯的《夜訪吸血鬼》第二季和《陰屍路：達裡爾迪克森》。《達裡爾》有望成為今年 AMC 和 AMC+ 上收視率最高的原創劇集第二名，僅次於《活著的人》。

Acorn TV, the destination for passionate and loyal fans of international crime dramas and mysteries, continues to fire on all cylinders. In the third quarter, we saw a year-over-year improvement in Acorn's already strong retention and also an improvement in sign-ups with the third quarter being our biggest quarter for customer acquisition so far this year. This is particularly impressive given a rate event we implemented in the second quarter and speaks to the loyalty and high engagement of Acorn subscribers. We have a new Acorn series called Irish Flood, starring Alicia Silverstone currently in production in Ireland and more brand expanded shows on the way.

Acorn TV 是國際犯罪劇和懸疑劇的熱情忠實粉絲的目的地，繼續火力全開。在第三季度，我們看到 Acorn 本已強勁的保留率同比有所改善，註冊量也有所改善，第三季度是我們今年迄今為止獲得客戶最多的季度。考慮到我們在第二季實施的費率活動，這一點尤其令人印象深刻，並說明了 Acorn 用戶的忠誠度和高參與度。我們有一個名為《愛爾蘭洪水》的新《橡子》系列，由艾莉西亞席爾維斯頓主演，目前正在愛爾蘭製作，更多品牌擴展節目即將推出。

We just wrapped the 28th installment of our FearFest Horror programming event, which is now curated by Shudder, and has delivered fantastic results across all of our platforms. October was the highest rated month of the year on AMC and made the network a top 5 movie destination in cable. FearFest titles also drove an all-time high in film viewership on AMC+, beating last year's record. And even as FearFest wraps, Shudder will keep the party going all this month with its season of screens programming stunt and new movie releases and watch parties every Friday night.

我們剛結束了 FearFest Horror 程式設計活動的第 28 期，該活動現在由 Shudder 策劃，並在我們所有的平台上取得了出色的成果。10 月是 AMC 一年中收視率最高的月份，使該網絡成為有線電視網排名前 5 的電影目的地。FearFest 影片也推動 AMC+ 的電影收視率創歷史新高，打破了去年的紀錄。即使 FearFest 結束，Shudder 仍將在整個月讓派對繼續下去，每週五晚上都會舉辦螢幕節目特技、新電影發布和觀看派對。

I want to note that Rotten Tomatoes just recently released its list of the best horror films of the year and 5 of the top 10 were films released by Shudder or IFC Films. Critics and Sirius horror fans agree, we own this cost-effective and financially efficient genre, which consistently delivers outsized levels of engagement and fan enthusiasm.

我想指出的是，爛番茄最近剛發布了年度最佳恐怖片排行榜，前十名中有 5 部是 Shudder 或 IFC Films 發行的電影。評論家和天狼星恐怖片粉絲一致認為，我們擁有這種具有成本效益和經濟效率的類型，它始終如一地提供超高水平的參與度和粉絲熱情。

Our fastest-growing targeted service, HIDIVE, caters to devoted anime fanatics and has continued to deliver strong results. In the third quarter, we saw sign-ups and viewerships both hit an all-time high. We're particularly pleased with the performance of I Parry Everything, which recently debuted as HIDIVE's number 1 most watched series ever.

我們成長最快的針對性服務 HIDIVE 迎合了忠實的動漫迷，並持續取得強勁成果。第三季度，我們看到註冊人數和收視率均創歷史新高。我們對《I Parry Everything》的表現特別滿意，該劇最近首次亮相，成為 HIDIVE 有史以來收視率第一的劇集。

Our strong upcoming slate on AMC and AMC+ includes the second season of Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches and a third season of Dark Winds, both debuting early next year. These are two series that we expect will benefit from our Netflix partnership given the popularity of prior seasons on that platform. We're in production of the third season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon in Spain. We just completed production on a new season of our horror Anthology, The Terror called Devil and Silver, which was shot on Staten Island. A third series of our Anne Rice Universe, The Talamasca, is shooting in Manchester, England, and we have a writers' room open for a highly anticipated Silicon Valley project from Jonathan Glasser, an award-winning writer producer whose credits include AMC's Better Call Sall as well as Succession.

我們即將在 AMC 和 AMC+ 上推出的強勁節目包括安妮賴斯 (Anne Rice) 的《梅菲爾女巫》第二季和《黑暗之風》第三季，這兩季均將於明年初首播。鑑於前幾季在 Netflix 平台上的受歡迎程度，我們預計這兩部影集將從我們與 Netflix 的合作中受益。我們正在西班牙製作《陰屍路：達裡爾迪克森》第三季。我們剛完成了新一季的恐怖選集《魔鬼與銀子》的製作，該劇是在史泰登島拍攝的。我們的安妮賴斯宇宙的第三季《塔拉馬斯卡》正在英國曼徹斯特拍攝，我們為Jonathan Glasser 的備受期待的矽谷項目開放了一個編劇室，喬納森格拉瑟是一位屢獲殊榮的編劇製片人，作品包括AMC 的《Better Call》薩爾以及繼承。

Before Patrick provides a more detailed look at our financial results, I want to say that even in a time of turbulence and uncertainty for many in our industry, we continue to find advantages in our size, independence and standing as one of the last pure-play premium programmers. We really can work with anyone to reach and serve viewers on our platforms and those of an expanding array of partners that include the likes of Comcast, Charter, Netflix, Amazon, Roku, YouTube, Samsung, VIZIO, Philo and so many others. We are nimble, opportunistic, and have reoriented our company for today's new environment with viewers and high-quality content that breaks out and drives popular culture at the center of everything we do.

在帕特里克更詳細地介紹我們的財務業績之前，我想說，即使在我們行業許多人面臨動盪和不確定的時期，我們仍繼續在規模、獨立性和作為最後的純粹企業之一的地位方面找到優勢。我們確實可以與任何人合作，在我們的平台以及不斷擴大的合作夥伴平台上接觸並服務觀眾，這些合作夥伴包括康卡斯特、Charter、Netflix、亞馬遜、Roku、YouTube、三星、VIZIO、Philo 等。我們靈活、機會主義，並根據當今的新環境重新定位了我們的公司，觀眾和高品質的內容突破並推動流行文化成為我們所做一切的中心。

I'm grateful to our people for breaking down the old ways of doing things and adopting a fast-moving and freethinking mindset more typical of a start-up than a legacy media company. This new approach is what this moment in media requires, and I'm pleased to say we're meeting the moment in so many ways.

我很感謝我們的員工打破了舊的做事方式，並採用了一種快速發展和自由思考的思維方式，這種思維方式更適合新創公司而不是傳統媒體公司。這種新方法正是媒體這一刻所需要的，我很高興地說我們正在以多種方式迎接這一刻。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Patrick.

這樣，我就把電話轉給派崔克。

Thank you, Kristin. We remain consistent in our strategic and financial priorities. We continue to lean into our unique strengths as an independent, innovative and nimble premium programmer, allowing us to successfully execute our disciplined financial framework even as the overall industry continues to redefine itself. We're quite proud of the significant strides we have made towards our key financial goals, including the optimization of our programming investments, the generation of robust free cash flow and the continued preservation of the strength of our balance sheet.

謝謝你，克里斯汀。我們的策略和財務優先事項保持一致。我們繼續發揮作為獨立、創新和靈活的高級程式設計師的獨特優勢，使我們能夠在整個行業不斷重新定義自身的情況下成功執行嚴格的財務框架。我們為實現關鍵財務目標所取得的重大進展感到非常自豪，包括優化我們的規劃投資、產生強勁的自由現金流以及持續維持資產負債表的實力。

As Kristin mentioned, year-to-date, AMC Networks has generated $293 million of free cash flow. This puts us solidly on track to achieve our financial outlook of year-over-year free cash flow growth for 2024 and approximately $0.5 billion of cumulative free cash flow by the end of 2025.

正如 Kristin 所提到的，今年迄今為止，AMC Networks 已產生 2.93 億美元的自由現金流。這使我們穩步實現 2024 年自由現金流同比增長的財務前景，並在 2025 年底實現約 5 億美元的累計自由現金流。

As mentioned in our earnings release this morning, we closed the transaction with BBC Studios last Friday, where we acquired the remaining 50% of the BBC America joint venture that we didn't already own for $42 million in cash, including cash that was distributed from the JV's balance sheet. We now own 100% of this iconic channel with full operational control and look forward to what the future holds.

正如今天上午的財報中所提到的，我們上週五完成了與 BBC Studios 的交易，以 4,200 萬美元現金（包括已分配的現金）收購了我們尚未擁有的 BBC America 合資企業剩餘 50% 的股份來自合資企業的資產負債表。我們現在擁有這個標誌性頻道 100% 的股份，擁有完全的營運控制權，並對未來充滿期待。

Of course, we still maintain a close commercial relationship with BBC Studios to ensure the brand and programming remain top tier. We will continue to fully consolidate BBC America as we did prior to the transaction.

當然，我們仍然與 BBC 工作室保持著密切的商業關係，以確保品牌和節目保持在頂級水平。我們將像交易前一樣繼續全面整合 BBC America。

Assuming this transaction closed on September 30, $133 million of redeemable noncontrolling interest related to the BBC America and reflected on our consolidated balance sheet would be eliminated. Going forward, we'll keep 100% of the cash the business generates and will no longer be making any related cash distributions to noncontrolling interests.

假設這項交易於 9 月 30 日結束，與 BBC America 相關並反映在我們合併資產負債表上的 1.33 億美元可贖回非控股權益將被消除。展望未來，我們將保留該業務產生的 100% 現金，並且將不再向非控制權益進行任何相關現金分配。

Moving on to our third quarter consolidated results. Consolidated revenue for the third quarter was $600 million, representing a decrease of 3%, excluding 25/7 Media in the prior period. Adjusted operating income was $131 million, representing a 22% margin, and we generated $54 million of free cash flow in the quarter.

接下來是我們第三季的綜合業績。第三季合併收入為 6 億美元，下降 3%，不包括上期的 25/7 Media。調整後營業收入為 1.31 億美元，利潤率為 22%，本季我們產生了 5,400 萬美元的自由現金流。

Now looking at segment level results. Domestic operations revenue decreased 2% to $530 million. Subscription revenue of $316 million decreased 5%, primarily due to linear subscriber declines, resulting in a 13% decline in affiliate revenue. This was partially offset by streaming revenue growth of 7%. Streaming growth was driven by both subscribers and rate, and we ended the third quarter with 11.8 million streaming subs.

現在看看細分等級的結果。國內營運收入下降 2%，至 5.3 億美元。訂閱收入為 3.16 億美元，下降 5%，主要是由於訂閱者線性下降，導致聯盟行銷收入下降 13%。這被 7% 的串流媒體收入成長部分抵消。串流媒體成長是由訂閱者和訂閱率共同推動的，第三季結束時，我們的串流訂閱者數量為 1,180 萬。

We are pleased with the performance of all of our services, and we're encouraged by the strong retention we have seen to date, particularly across our portfolio of targeted services where we saw year-over-year improvements in retention in the third quarter. As Kristin discussed in detail, our high-quality programming performs very well on both owned and third-party platforms. It remains highly sought after, and we continue to focus on optimizing the monetization of our AMC Studios' owned IP across an array of different windows. This includes finding new fans and building new audiences through broadly penetrated distribution partners, providing us access to the widest possible audience and in turn, increasing the value of our IP.

我們對所有服務的表現感到滿意，並且對迄今為止所看到的強勁保留率感到鼓舞，特別是在我們的目標服務組合中，我們看到第三季度的保留率同比有所改善。正如克里斯汀詳細討論的那樣，我們的高品質節目在自有平台和第三方平台上都表現良好。它仍然備受追捧，我們將繼續專注於在一系列不同的視窗中優化 AMC Studios 擁有的 IP 的貨幣化。這包括透過廣泛滲透的分銷合作夥伴尋找新粉絲並建立新受眾，使我們能夠接觸到盡可能廣泛的受眾，從而提高我們知識產權的價值。

The results are clearly visible in our strong third quarter licensing performance. Domestic ops content licensing revenue increased 31% to $81 million, driven by the timing and availability of deliveries, including deliveries related to the AMC collection on Netflix. Echoing what Kristin said earlier, we are thrilled with our performance here and the halo effects to date.

從我們強勁的第三季授權業績中可以清楚地看到結果。受交付時間和可用性的推動，包括與 Netflix 上的 AMC 合集相關的交付，國內營運內容授權收入成長了 31%，達到 8,100 萬美元。呼應克里斯汀之前所說的，我們對我們在這裡的表現和迄今為止的光環效應感到興奮。

Advertising revenue of $133 million declined 10%, largely due to lower linear ratings, partially offset by continued digital growth. It is worth highlighting that this is the second quarter in a row where we saw sequential improvement regarding the year-over-year rate of change in ad revenue.

廣告收入為 1.33 億美元，下降 10%，主要是由於線性收視率下降，但部分被持續的數位成長所抵消。值得強調的是，這是我們連續第二季看到廣告收入較去年同期變化率連續改善。

Domestic Operations AOI was $150 million for the quarter with a healthy margin of 28%. The year-over-year decrease in AOI was largely driven by linear revenue declines in the quarter.

本季國內營運 AOI 為 1.5 億美元，利潤率為 28%。AOI 年減主要是由於本季營收線性下降所致。

Moving to our international segment. Third quarter international revenue was $74 million. Excluding 25/7 Media in the prior period, international revenue decreased 6%. International advertising revenue growth remained robust in the third quarter with growth of 16%, largely driven by the momentum of new AVOD offerings, namely ITVX in the UK, in addition to growth in Central and Northern Europe. International AOI was $14 million for the quarter with a margin of 18%.

轉向我們的國際部分。第三季國際營收為 7,400 萬美元。剔除上期 25/7 Media 的影響，國際收入下降 6%。第三季國際廣告收入成長依然強勁，成長了 16%，這主要是受到新 AVOD 產品（即英國的 ITVX）以及中歐和北歐成長勢頭的推動。本季國際 AOI 為 1,400 萬美元，利潤率為 18%。

Moving to the balance sheet. We ended the third quarter with net debt of approximately $1.6 billion and consolidated net leverage ratio of 3 times. As a reminder, we completed a series of meaningful financings this year and significantly extended our maturity profile. And as such, we now have no bond maturities until 2029.

轉向資產負債表。第三季末，我們的淨債務約為 16 億美元，綜合淨槓桿率為 3 倍。提醒一下，我們今年完成了一系列有意義的融資，並顯著延長了我們的成熟度。因此，我們現在的債券在 2029 年之前都沒有到期日。

We ended the quarter with approximately $1 billion in total liquidity, including $816 million of cash on the balance sheet and our undrawn $175 million revolver. We appreciate the flexibility and optionality of our meaningful cash balance. We believe our capital structure will continue to present attractive opportunities for us to deploy cash in an accretive manner, benefiting both the equity and the credit over time. In the third quarter, in addition to our regularly scheduled amortization payments, we paid down an incremental $35 million of our credit facility debt.

本季結束時，我們的流動資金總額約為 10 億美元，其中包括資產負債表上的 8.16 億美元現金和未提取的 1.75 億美元左輪手槍。我們讚賞我們有意義的現金餘額的靈活性和選擇性。我們相信，我們的資本結構將繼續為我們提供有吸引力的機會，以增值的方式配置現金，隨著時間的推移，股本和信貸都會受益。第三季度，除了定期攤提付款外，我們還償還了增量 3,500 萬美元的信貸安排債務。

Our capital allocation philosophy remains prudent and opportunistic. First, we look to support the business by creating and acquiring compelling programming that resonates with our audiences, while maintaining healthy levels of profitability and cash flow generation. Second, we look to improve our balance sheet by reducing gross debt and optimizing our capital structure. Third, M&A and share repurchases or dividends remain further down our current priority list.

我們的資本配置理念仍然是審慎和機會主義的。首先，我們希望透過製作和獲取與觀眾產生共鳴的引人注目的節目來支持業務，同時保持健康的盈利水平和現金流生成。其次，我們希望透過減少總債務和優化資本結構來改善資產負債表。第三，併購和股票回購或股息仍然在我們目前的優先事項清單中排在後面。

Moving on to our outlook. We are pleased with the progress we have made year-to-date, and we believe we are well positioned to achieve our outlook for the full year. Beginning with free cash flow, we continue to expect to grow free cash flow this year, year-over-year for the full year 2024. And by 2025, we expect to have generated cumulative free cash flow of approximately $0.5 billion.

繼續我們的展望。我們對今年迄今的進展感到滿意，並相信我們有能力實現全年的前景。從自由現金流開始，我們繼續預計今年自由現金流將在 2024 年全年同比增長。到 2025 年，我們預計將產生約 5 億美元的累積自由現金流。

In terms of revenue, we continue to expect total revenue of approximately $2.4 billion for the full year. On AOI, for 2024, we continue to expect consolidated AOI of $550 million to $575 million, with growth in streaming and digital advertising as well as prudent expense management remaining key focuses of ours despite ongoing linear revenue headwinds. We anticipate cash programming spend to be a little bit less than $1 billion this year and that programming amortization will be similar to 2023 levels.

在收入方面，我們繼續預計全年總收入約為 24 億美元。在 AOI 方面，我們繼續預期 2024 年綜合 AOI 為 5.5 億至 5.75 億美元，儘管持續存在線性收入逆風，但串流媒體和數位廣告的成長以及審慎的費用管理仍然是我們的重點。我們預計今年的現金節目支出將略低於 10 億美元，節目攤銷將與 2023 年的水準相似。

I'll close with what I've said in the past regarding our overarching financial philosophy. We continue to employ our back-to-basics approach that emphasizes broad distribution of our content and brands across platforms and prioritizes near-term monetization and at the same time, takes advantage of our unique position as a nimble and innovative premium programmer. We'll continue to allocate our capital wisely to ensure we maintain a healthy balance sheet, remain extremely disciplined on expenses, and balance appropriate levels of programming investment against available monetization opportunities.

我將以我過去所說的有關我們整體財務理念的內容作為結束語。我們繼續採用返璞歸真的方法，強調跨平台廣泛傳播我們的內容和品牌，並優先考慮短期盈利，同時利用我們作為靈活和創新的優質程式設計師的獨特地位。我們將繼續明智地分配我們的資本，以確保我們保持健康的資產負債表，保持嚴格的支出紀律，並平衡適當水平的編程投資與可用的貨幣化機會。

With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

那麼，接線員，請開通提問線路。

(Operator Instructions) Thomas Yeh, Morgan Stanley.

（操作員指示）Thomas Yeh，摩根士丹利。

I'm hoping to get a bit of an update on the ad-supported tier for streaming, and how that may or may not have kind of evolved over time as a broader mix of your 11.8 million subscribers. I mean you have that and then you have the momentum on your FAST channels, just trying to collectively think about the inventory that you have to play with and whether or not you're still agnostic to the ad tier versus non-ad tier in terms of adoption as you kind of drive your OTT growth.

我希望獲得有關串流媒體廣告支援層的一些最新信息，以及隨著 1180 萬訂閱者的更廣泛組合，隨著時間的推移，該層可能會或可能不會發生演變。我的意思是，您擁有了這一點，然後您在 FAST 頻道上有了動力，只是嘗試集體思考您必須使用的庫存，以及您是否仍然對廣告層與非廣告層不可知。採用率。

Thomas, it's Kristin. There's a lot to unpack here. I think I'm actually going to throw it to Kim to take you through the specifics on your questions.

托馬斯，這是克里斯汀。這裡有很多東西需要解壓縮。我想我實際上會把它交給 Kim，讓他詳細介紹您的問題。

Sure. We're very encouraged by early results of our ad-supported growth in streaming. Obviously, we just launched late last year, and we continue to see it play a pretty fast growth aspects of introducing new customers to AMC+ in all the right ways.

當然。我們對廣告支援的串流媒體成長的早期成果感到非常鼓舞。顯然，我們在去年年底剛推出，我們繼續看到它在以所有正確的方式向 AMC+ 引入新客戶方面發揮著相當快的成長作用。

That said, it is still a very targeted approach. And as you point out, the way we go to market with that inventory is coupled with our digital inventory from other distributions, including FAST and AVOD.

儘管如此，這仍然是一個非常有針對性的方法。正如您所指出的，我們將該庫存推向市場的方式與來自其他發行版（包括 FAST 和 AVOD）的數位庫存相結合。

Our priority has been to maintain a first sales position across all platform partnerships, which gives us that first sales right of bringing our inventory attached to our programming to market. So it's a slightly different strategy than many of the others in the marketplace, but it's serving us incredibly well and helping us to scale, so we're seeing quarter-over-quarter growth consistently for our digital revenue.

我們的首要任務是在所有平台合作夥伴中保持第一銷售地位，這使我們擁有將節目附帶的庫存推向市場的第一個銷售權。因此，這是一種與市場上許多其他策略略有不同的策略，但它為我們提供了令人難以置信的良好服務並幫助我們擴大規模，因此我們看到我們的數位收入持續逐季度增長。

And on top of that, we're very, very aggressive with making our inventory more seamlessly transactable, more real time and more addressable, not only across the digital footprint, but also our linear footprint. Happy to expand on that more.

最重要的是，我們非常非常積極地使我們的庫存更加無縫交易、更加即時和更加可尋址，不僅在數位足跡上，而且在我們的線性足跡上。很高興能對此進行更多擴展。

And I would just say we're comfortable with the split between -- it wasn't surprising to us at all. We can't break it out, but the difference between premium and ad-supported on the streaming service for AMC+, we're comfortable with how that's coming in.

我想說的是，我們對兩者之間的分歧感到滿意——這對我們來說一點也不奇怪。我們無法透露這一點，但 AMC+ 串流服務上的付費服務和廣告支援之間的區別，我們對它的出現方式感到滿意。

And what it's also allowed us to do, while we keep our streaming services below $10 a month at this point, by bringing in the ad-supported tier, we took an increase on AMC+ prior increase, but now people have the opportunity to flex down and still keep the service. But important to remember that both the ad-supported and the premium are still below $10.

它還允許我們做的事情，雖然我們目前將串流媒體服務保持在每月 10 美元以下，但透過引入廣告支援層，我們在 AMC+ 之前的基礎上增加了費用，但現在人們有機會降低費用並仍然保留服務。但重要的是要記住，廣告支援的費用和溢價仍然低於 10 美元。

So it sounds like it's fair to say you're willing to sacrifice maybe direct ARPU on an ad-supported subscriber for maybe some of the broader holistic things that it brings you from a --

因此，聽起來可以公平地說，您願意犧牲廣告支援的訂閱者的直接 ARPU，以換取它為您帶來的一些更廣泛的整體事物。--

Yes, particularly, as Kim noted, because of the opportunity to truly sell cross-platform and to sell audiences versus just spots.

是的，特別是，正如金指出的那樣，因為有機會真正銷售跨平台並銷售觀眾而不是僅僅銷售廣告位。

And then, Kristin, you mentioned the original Walking Dead rights return to you in the next few years. Do you see that particular title as something that deserves a different approach? Or how are you thinking about redeploying that catalog? Or what flexibility does that open up to you relative to what's actually happening now? Because I feel like you have some options.

然後，克莉絲汀，你提到《陰屍路》的原始版權將在未來幾年內回歸。您是否認為該特定標題值得採用不同的方法？或者您如何考慮重新部署該目錄？或者相對於現在實際發生的事情，這會為你帶來什麼彈性？因為我覺得你有一些選擇。

I mean it's about 20% of our -- the value of our inventory, or the value of our catalog is vested with The Walking Dead. And we know that with having all of it back in-house within two years, Dan has been doing a lot of thinking. I'll flip it to him about how to best utilize that catalog and the associated IP to maximize the value. But it continues to be hugely popular around the world. So it is important that we're getting all the rights back.

我的意思是，我們的庫存價值或目錄價值的 20% 左右都歸屬於《陰屍路》。我們知道，在兩年內將所有這些都帶回公司內部後，丹一直在進行很多思考。我將向他轉述如何最好地利用該目錄和相關智慧財產權來實現價值最大化。但它仍然在世界各地廣受歡迎。因此，我們收回所有權利非常重要。

I'll just throw in. I mean, obviously, these rights are very valuable to us. They come back to us, as Kristin noted, in roughly two years. And they'll be possibly even more valuable to us as a part of a cohesive package that includes the entire full universe of Walking Dead shows. So we have a lot of different options, a lot of different ways we can drive monetization, and we're going to be sure to be super strategic and do whatever drives the most value for the company and serves the fans. So we're looking forward to that moment in time.

我就扔進去。我的意思是，顯然，這些權利對我們來說非常有價值。正如克里斯汀所說，他們會在大約兩年後回到我們身邊。作為包含整個《陰屍路》系列節目的整體包款的一部分，它們對我們來說可能更有價值。因此，我們有很多不同的選擇，有很多不同的方式來推動貨幣化，我們將確保具有超級策略性，並盡一切努力為公司帶來最大價值並為粉絲服務。所以我們期待那一刻的到來。

Steven Cahall, Wells Fargo.

史蒂文卡霍爾，富國銀行。

So Kristin, it sounds like you've really seen the power of some of your marquee content on Netflix, and it was helpful to understand how that's driving more subscribers to AMC+. How do you think about the value of those subscribers on AMC+ for those new seasons?

克里斯汀，聽起來您確實在 Netflix 上看到了一些熱門內容的力量，了解這如何吸引更多訂閱者訂閱 AMC+ 很有幫助。您如何看待 AMC+ 上這些訂閱者對於新劇集的價值？

And then there's kind of a studio inside of AMC that's making all this. So how do you think about whether or not you want those new seasons on your own branded platform like AMC+ versus selling directly to Netflix with new original content, just given the size of their reach and what that reach has done with your own programming? So I would love to hear how you think about that trade-off between being a studio and being a distribution company.

AMC 內部有一個工作室正在製作這一切。那麼，考慮到這些新劇集的覆蓋範圍以及該覆蓋範圍對您自己的節目產生的影響，您如何考慮是否希望將這些新劇集放在您自己的品牌平台（如AMC+）上，還是將新的原創內容直接賣給Netflix？所以我很想聽聽您如何看待工作室和發行公司之間的權衡。

And then, Patrick, thank you for the color on capital allocation. I feel like you've really deemphasized share repurchases or dividends for now. I know you're not giving long-term guidance on AOI, but is that to -- can we infer from that that you think that there could be some AOI growth pressure ahead that naturally pushes leverage a little higher. I think you're prepaying some of your debt with your free cash flow. So trying to get at whether or not this is the last year of declines in AOI or if this implies there could be some decline still ahead.

然後，派崔克，感謝您對資本配置的闡述。我覺得你現在真的不再強調股票回購或股利。我知道您沒有為 AOI 提供長期指導，但我們是否可以從中推斷出您認為未來可能存在一些 AOI 成長壓力，自然會推高槓桿率。我認為你正在用自由現金流預付部分債務。因此，我們試圖弄清楚今年是否是 AOI 下降的最後一年，或者這是否意味著未來可能還會出現一些下降。

I'll start. So your question about the new seasons, the way that we look at acquisition for AMC+ is we'll look at the first stream that people watch when they come into the service, right? And so with the shows that are on Netflix, as you're aware, it's only prior seasons. So as I noted in my remarks, we see significant uptake on new customers coming in that are watching the new seasons of the show.

我開始吧。所以你關於新一季的問題，我們看待 AMC+ 收購的方式是，我們會關注人們進入服務時觀看的第一個串流媒體，對嗎？因此，正如您所知，Netflix 上的節目只是前幾季。正如我在演講中指出的那樣，我們看到觀看新一季節目的新客戶數量顯著增加。

So it's a roundabout way of answering your question, the value of those new seasons on AMC+ are really, really important. But that being said, we're getting more and more sophisticated through our data and our analysis around viewership and what hunts and what doesn't and what works in linear and what works in streaming, that Dan and team are getting much more sophisticated in really taking everything we have available to us and wind doing it in a very strategic way.

所以這是一個迂迴的方式來回答你的問題，AMC+ 上這些新劇集的價值非常非常重要。但話雖這麼說，透過我們的數據和對收視率的分析，以及什麼是搜尋、什麼不是、什麼在線性中有效、什麼在串流媒體中有效，我們變得越來越複雜，丹和團隊在這方面變得越來越複雜。

So I'll let Dan comment on that to answer your second question.

所以我會讓丹對此發表評論來回答你的第二個問題。

Steve, I'd say, look, going back to what Kristin said at the top of this, making and curating great content is what drives the overall monetization opportunity in front of us, and it builds lasting asset value. And that's, in particular, owning that value inside of our studio, whether we're producing for AMC or producing for third-party platforms. So obviously, the beauty of having a studio and producing programming is that these rights rest with us. And we're very interested and strategically working right now to create an opportunity with our studio to be able to sell to third-party platforms in a meaningful way.

史蒂夫，我想說，看看，回到克里斯汀在最上面所說的，製作和策劃偉大的內容是推動我們面前的整體貨幣化機會的因素，它建立了持久的資產價值。尤其是，無論我們是為 AMC 製作還是為第三方平台製作，我們在工作室內部都擁有這種價值。顯然，擁有工作室和製作節目的美妙之處在於這些權利屬於我們。我們非常感興趣，現在正在策略性地與我們的工作室創造機會，以便能夠以有意義的方式向第三方平台銷售。

As a reminder, we produced Silo for Apple, which has been a very successful show for them. Season 2 is, I think they're going to -- is dropping soon, and we're soon to begin production on Season 3. And so we have a lot of plans for how to continue to build the library of assets in our studio and look forward to doing so over the next couple of years.

提醒一下，我們為 Apple 製作了 Silo，這對他們來說是一個非常成功的展示。我認為第二季很快就會播出，我們很快就會開始製作第三季。因此，我們對於如何繼續在我們的工作室中建立資產庫有很多計劃，並期待在未來幾年內這樣做。

The other thing I'd add to that is just Dan and his team are very good at creating content inexpensively, and we'll do really high-quality shows like The Walking Dead or Mayfair Witches or Talamasca, which we're filming now. But then we also produce really high-quality content very inexpensively for Acorn, for All Black. And so we can do anything from like $50,000 to $100,000 an episode all the way up to $6 million or $7 million an episode, and the quality is really good.

我要補充的另一件事是丹和他的團隊非常擅長以低成本製作內容，我們將製作真正高品質的節目，例如我們正在拍攝的《陰屍路》或《梅菲爾女巫》或《塔拉馬斯卡》。但我們也以非常低廉的價格為 Acorn 和 All Black 製作真正高品質的內容。所以我們可以做任何事情，從每集 5 萬美元到 10 萬美元，一直到每集 600 萬美元或 700 萬美元，而且品質非常好。

So Dan and team are very careful to select the right content, produce it incredibly well and efficiently, and then put it in the right places. And interestingly, we see some shows that may be what we would consider lower budgets to create that actually have great success even on platforms like Netflix.

因此，丹和團隊非常謹慎地選擇正確的內容，以令人難以置信的出色和高效的方式製作內容，然後將其放在正確的位置。有趣的是，我們看到一些我們認為可以用較低預算製作的節目，實際上即使在 Netflix 這樣的平台上也取得了巨大成功。

Steven, it's Patrick. On your broader financial outlook question, I'd address it this way. The industry is still very much in the midst of a kind of generational change in the operating model here. We're obviously subject to the same secular trends as others. We continue to evolve our business model in light of those changes. We're mindful of the level of programming investments. We're mindful of the level of expense that goes into this business. I think we've demonstrated an ability to be quite nimble and fishing where the fish are, whether it's the kind of the pop-up on Max and then most recently, obviously, the content licensing deal with Netflix. And so we feel good about the hand that we have in terms of having really strong assets.

史蒂文，是派崔克。關於更廣泛的財務前景問題，我會這樣回答。該產業仍處於營運模式的世代變革之中。顯然，我們和其他人一樣受到同樣的長期趨勢的影響。我們根據這些變化繼續發展我們的業務模式。我們關注節目投資的程度。我們注意到這項業務的費用水平。我認為我們已經展示了一種非常靈活的能力，無論是在 Max 上的彈出窗口，還是最近與 Netflix 的內容許可協議，都能在有魚的地方釣魚。因此，我們對自己擁有真正強大的資產感到滿意。

You mentioned yourself the value of the studio and the content that produces. We think that's going to continue to accrue to the benefit of the company and the equity over time, near to intermediate term, it's a little bit more opaque. As I've mentioned, we've taken steps to derisk the business from an operating perspective with the moves that we've made.

您提到了工作室的價值以及製作的內容。我們認為，隨著時間的推移，這將繼續為公司和股權帶來利益，接近中期，它有點不透明。正如我所提到的，我們已採取措施從營運角度消除業務風險。

And then from a financial perspective, we still are very much focused on generating maximum amounts of free cash flow to maintain really good levels of financial flexibility and liquidity. And so as you've seen in this past quarter with the free cash flow generation, this puts us in a very good position to achieve our two-year guidance of $0.5 billion of free cash flow.

從財務角度來看，我們仍然非常注重產生最大量的自由現金流，以保持良好的財務靈活性和流動性水準。正如您在上個季度看到的自由現金流生成情況一樣，這使我們處於非常有利的位置，可以實現 5 億美元自由現金流的兩年指引。

So net-net, we're still in the middle innings here of the industry's evolution. We've taken some meaningful steps, both on the operating side of the business and financially to take advantage of opportunities that exist, also derisk ourselves to the degree possible. So we feel good about that, and we'll continue to play.

因此，網路網絡，我們仍處於產業發展的中期。我們在業務營運和財務方面採取了一些有意義的步驟，以利用現有的機會，同時盡可能地降低自己的風險。所以我們對此感覺很好，我們會繼續比賽。

David Joyce, Seaport Research Partners.

大衛喬伊斯，海港研究夥伴。

A couple of questions on the impacts of the strategies that are coming to light. First, on the content licensing, a nice growth in that year-over-year, obviously, with the Netflix deal. I'm just wondering, given you've got a kind of a wide aperture for where you're placing and selling your content, how should we think about this revenue stream? Is this kind of onetime for Netflix? Or is there something recurring there that we can look forward to each quarter? I know typically, it is a fairly lumpy revenue line. Just wanted your thoughts on that.

關於即將公佈的戰略影響的幾個問題。首先，在內容授權方面，由於與 Netflix 的交易，該年同比有了不錯的增長。我只是想知道，考慮到您在放置和銷售內容方面有很大的空間，我們應該如何考慮這個收入來源？這對 Netflix 來說是一次性的嗎？或者每季都會出現一些值得我們期待的事情？我通常知道，這是一條相當不穩定的收入線。只是想知道你對此的想法。

And then secondly, on the SG&A expenses, they were up a little bit year-over-year, but I'm just wondering -- (technical difficulty) in the selling or if there are onetime items in this expense line? I'm just wondering how to think about that going forward as well. Thanks.

其次，在SG&A費用方面，它們比去年同期略有上升，但我只是想知道——（技術難度）在銷售中，或者該費用項目中是否有一次性項目？我只是想知道如何思考未來的發展。謝謝。

It's Kristin. On the content licensing, I just want to be clear, Netflix is not the primary driver of our content licensing increase this year. So just to be clear because I think that could be inferred from your question. We're really focused on broad distribution of the content and generating the best possible return. But our owned IP and everything that we license is really windowed around the world in a variety of ways, either to we license to ourselves for our international areas and then in places where we don't have carriage distribution, then we license to others.

這是克里斯汀。關於內容授權，我只是想澄清，Netflix 並不是我們今年內容授權成長的主要動力。所以我想澄清一下，因為我認為這可以從你的問題中推斷出來。我們真正專注於內容的廣泛分發並產生盡可能最佳的回報。但我們擁有的知識產權和我們授權的所有內容實際上以各種方式在世界各地進行傳播，要么我們在國際區域向自己授權，然後在我們沒有運輸分銷的地方，然後我們向其他人授權。

But I'll let Kim speak a little bit on the growth there because it has been a real bright spot for us, and I think we'll continue to do so.

但我會讓 Kim 談談那裡的成長，因為這對我們來說是一個真正的亮點，我認為我們將繼續這樣做。

Thanks, Kristin. I think just adding to what Kristin just shared, I'd say we opportunistically look around the world for opportunities in markets where we do not have an owned and operated footprint, and pursue making sure that our content is available everywhere viewers want to watch it, so that globally, a strategy that we've had long in place that continues to expand and grow.

謝謝，克里斯汀。我認為，除了克里斯汀剛剛分享的內容之外，我想說的是，我們會機會主義地在世界各地尋找我們沒有擁有和經營足跡的市場機會，並努力確保我們的內容在觀眾想要觀看的任何地方都可用，因此在全球範圍內，我們長期實施的策略將繼續擴大和發展。

Domestically, I would say we're increasingly focused on nonexclusive deals that allow us to monetize our content multiple times on multiple platforms, whether ours or partners and oftentimes both, we're really -- but we do this very thoughtfully to ensure that we're protecting the value of our content by retaining the premiers and the new seasons. So what we're seeing is a premier is the first time someone watches something. So this gives us an opportunity to utilize the fragmentation in the marketplace to our benefit.

在國內，我想說的是，我們越來越關注非排他性交易，這些交易使我們能夠在多個平台上多次將我們的內容貨幣化，無論是我們的平台還是合作夥伴的平台，通常是兩者，我們確實- 但我們這樣做非常深思熟慮，以確保我們通過保留首播和新季來保護我們內容的價值。所以我們看到的是首播是某人第一次觀看某些內容。因此，這使我們有機會利用市場的碎片化來為我們謀取利益。

And I'd add one other thing on that is just the way that we've reorganized the company in integrating all the majority of the brands, both on linear and streaming into one part of the organization. And so we've been able to utilize content across all platforms, across all services.

我還要補充另一件事，那就是我們重組公司的方式，將所有大多數品牌（無論是線性品牌還是串流媒體品牌）整合到組織的一個部分。因此，我們能夠在所有平台、所有服務中利用內容。

And interestingly, we don't have a lot of overlap between our various brands as far as the viewership is concerned. even when you look at AMC+, AMC+ is arguably a catch-up service for the linear network. And when we went day and date so that everything is released on both at the same time instead of premiering things on the streaming service, we haven't seen a decline in viewership.

有趣的是，就收視率而言，我們的各個品牌之間並沒有太多重疊。即使你看看 AMC+，AMC+ 也可以說是線性網路的追趕者。當我們日復一日地讓所有內容同時在兩個平台上發布而不是在串流媒體服務上首映時，我們並沒有看到收視率下降。

Everybody is gravitating to watch the way that they want to watch. So the opportunity to move things around has not negatively impacted viewership on any of the brands and actually has allowed us to take content that might historically have been nestled under one brand and not been widely used across all the different verticals that we have. We've gotten much better at taking content, spreading it around and not cannibalizing ourselves while maximizing the value of particularly the things that we create ourselves.

每個人都傾向於以自己想要的方式觀看。因此，改變事物的機會並沒有對任何品牌的收視率產生負面影響，而且實際上使我們能夠獲取歷史上可能屬於一個品牌但未在我們擁有的所有不同垂直領域廣泛使用的內容。我們在獲取內容、傳播內容、不蠶食自己的方面做得更好，同時最大限度地提高我們自己創造的東西的價值。

David, it's Patrick. On the last question regarding the year-over-year trends on the SG&A line, that is largely due to an increase in marketing year-over-year. We've made a concerted effort to be quite tactical in our deployment of marketing dollars. And so this is mostly what we call performance marketing, bottom of funnel where we've got people in the ecosystem that have very high intent, whether this is search or other verticals where the CPAs are attractive. And so we've continued to be very tactical in the market that way and also across our various products. And so those are well spent dollars.

大衛，是派崔克。關於最後一個關於 SG&A 線同比趨勢的問題，這主要是由於行銷同比增長。我們齊心協力，在行銷資金的部署上採取了相當戰術性的策略。因此，這主要是我們所說的績效行銷，即漏斗底部，生態系統中的人們具有非常高的意圖，無論是搜尋還是註冊會計師有吸引力的其他垂直領域。因此，我們在市場上以及我們的各種產品上繼續採取非常戰術性的策略。所以這些錢花得值得。

There's kind of, I would call it, very near term, like inside 12 months or certainly within 12 to 18 months ROI on those dollars. So it's mostly marketing on the SG&A line. Not seasonal so much is just tactical in terms of where and when we find subs at the right price.

我稱之為，非常近期的投資回報率，例如 12 個月內，或肯定是 12 到 18 個月內。所以它主要是在SG&A 線上進行行銷。與其說是季節性的，不如說是戰術性的，即我們在何時何地以合適的價格找到潛艇。

Charles Wilber, Guggenheim Securities.

查爾斯‧威爾伯，古根漢證券公司。

I was hoping, first off, on the Charter renewal that you called out, if you could share any color on how the revenue recognition might evolve between your affiliate revenues and your streaming revenues with the new deal? And then kind of when and how any subscribers to your streaming services might be recognized there?

首先，我希望在您提出的章程更新問題上，您能否分享一下新協議中您的聯盟行銷收入和串流媒體收入之間的收入確認可能如何演變？然後，您的串流媒體服務的訂閱者何時以及如何被識別？

And then secondly, on free cash flow. You guys have done really well through the first three quarters of the year. I know you highlighted the $42 million payment for BBC America, but wanted to see if there were any other kind of high-level items, puts and takes that you might call out for the fourth quarter, if there are any strike-related benefits in the prior year that you're lapping or content production timing or anything like that?

其次，關於自由現金流。你們今年前三個季度的表現非常好。我知道您強調了 BBC America 的 4200 萬美元付款，但想了解您可能會在第四季度提出的任何其他類型的高級項目、看跌期權和看跌期權，以及是否有任何與罷工相關的福利。研磨的前一年或內容製作時間或類似的事情？

So first, yes, I was going to say for Charles, just on the Charter renewal. I'm sorry. We obviously don't comment on specifics of any deal, but we sell as a bundle and we get paid as a bundle, and that's really important for us because we are, I think, one of the first that has integrated our streaming products as well as our linear products on renewal and opportunistically with Charter, with Philo and with others in the space.

首先，是的，我要代表查爾斯說的是憲章續約問題。對不起。顯然，我們不會對任何交易的具體細節發表評論，但我們作為捆綁銷售，並作為捆綁獲得報酬，這對我們來說非常重要，因為我認為，我們是第一批將我們的串流媒體產品集成為以及我們與 Charter、Philo 和該領域其他人合作的關於更新和機會主義的線性產品。

So I'll throw it back to Patrick because I think the industry itself is still figuring out how we're going to count these subs and how they're going to report them. But as far as the terms of the deal, we fully integrate, and that's the way it works.

所以我會把它扔給帕特里克，因為我認為行業本身仍在弄清楚我們將如何計算這些潛艇以及他們將如何報告它們。但就交易條款而言，我們完全整合，這就是它的運作方式。

On the accounting, this is a deal that's not going to be operationalized until kind of early 2025. So I would say watch this space. There's more to come, and we're not going to unpack the accounting right now. But obviously, as the revenue comes in the door, we'll be very clear in terms of how that's being recognized across the various revenue buckets, but nothing to say at this time right now.

從會計角度來看，這筆交易要到 2025 年初才會實施。所以我想說要留意這個空間。還有更多內容，我們現在不打算解開會計問題。但顯然，隨著收入的到來，我們將非常清楚如何在各個收入類別中認識到這一點，但目前無話可說。

Secondly, on your question regarding free cash flow, we continue to be very pleased with the amount of cash flow generation we've been able to squeeze out of the business. A big part of the reason we gave the two-year guide was twofold. One, to demonstrate our commitment to generating that amount of free cash flow, obviously, in service of supporting the balance sheet and liquidity in the business; but two, demonstrate our confidence in being able to deliver it.

其次，關於你關於自由現金流的問題，我們仍然對我們能夠從業務中擠出的現金流量感到非常滿意。我們提供兩年期指南的很大一部分原因是雙重的。第一，展示我們對產生大量自由現金流的承諾，顯然是為了支持業務的資產負債表和流動性；但第二，顯示我們有信心能夠實現這一目標。

An ancillary benefit there is that we're not having to sort of necessarily manage it period-to-period or quarter-to-quarter. And so it does tend to be lumpy in terms of when content licensing deals get signed or when certain things are in production. I wouldn't call out anything specific in terms of either one of those as far as this quarter goes, but you should expect lumpiness on a quarter-to-quarter basis, but that's the beauty of your guide, which is you can rest assured that we're laser-focused on achieving these numbers. And obviously, the performance to date kind of puts us in good stead to do that.

這樣做的一個附帶好處是，我們不必按週期或按季度進行管理。因此，就內容授權協議何時簽署或某些內容何時投入生產而言，它確實往往是不穩定的。就本季度而言，我不會就其中任何一個提出任何具體內容，但您應該預計每個季度都會出現波動，但這就是您的指南的優點，您可以放心我們正全力以赴地實現這些數字。顯然，迄今為止的表現使我們有能力做到這一點。

I just finish the question, Charles, by also pointing out, it's important just to remind people that we're driving the profitability by refining and improving the organization, not by cuts. And so the Comcast Technology Solutions decision that will bear fruit when we complete that transition over the next period of time. It doesn't happen overnight.

查爾斯，我剛結束這個問題，同時指出，重要的是要提醒人們，我們是透過完善和改進組織來提高獲利能力，而不是透過削減。因此，當我們在接下來的一段時間內完成過渡時，康卡斯特技術解決方案的決定將會取得成果。這不會在一夜之間發生。

And reorganization, as I mentioned earlier, more efficient marketing, more strategic utilization of data, all of that is helping us bring the costs down without just aggressively making any cuts. It's really about running the company more efficiently and utilizing a lot of the technology and the capabilities that we have at our fingertips here every day.

正如我之前提到的，重組、更有效率的行銷、更具策略性的數據利用，所有這些都有助於我們降低成本，而無需大幅削減成本。這實際上是為了更有效地經營公司，並利用我們每天觸手可及的大量技術和能力。

Thank you. This does conclude today's question-and-answer session. And I would like to hand the conference back over to Nick Siebert for closing remarks.

謝謝。今天的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議交還給尼克·西伯特（Nick Siebert）致閉幕詞。

Thanks for joining us today. Have a good day.

感謝您今天加入我們。祝你有美好的一天。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。