According To The variety) “Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire,” “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” and a handful of other AMC shows are coming to Netflix as part of a new deal between the network and the streamer.
The deal, which will put prior seasons of 13 AMC series on Netflix for one year, begins Aug. 19. It includes “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” Season 1, “Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire” Season 1, “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches” Season 1, “Monsieur Spade” Season 1, “A Discovery of Witches” Seasons 1-3, “Dark Winds” Seasons 1-2, “Fear the Walking Dead” Seasons 1-8, “Gangs of London” Seasons 1-2, “Into the Badlands” Seasons 1-3, “Kevin can F*** Himself” Seasons 1-2, “Preacher” Seasons 1-4, “That Dirty Black Bag” Season 1 and “The Terror” Season 1.
Two additional series — “The Walking Dead: Dead City” Season 1 and “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live” Season 1 — will arrive on Netflix starting Jan. 13. In addition, the new AMC series — plus the 11 seasons of “The Walking Dead” already on Netflix — will be offered without commercials on Netflix’s standard with ads plan.
AMC is hoping that by tapping into Netflix’s humongous audience (compare AMC’s 11.5 million paid streaming subscribers to Netflix’s 269.6 million), the network might be able to bring mass attention to a lesser seen yet critically acclaimed series — say, the “Breaking Bad” effect.
Kristin Dolan, chief executive officer of AMC Networks, said in a statement, “This agreement puts our high-quality shows in front of the vast audience of Netflix subscribers with the AMC brand clearly represented. These curated titles are also being strategically windowed to drive interest in current and upcoming seasons on our direct-to-consumer and partner platforms. We believe this significant expansion of our Netflix relationship will drive viewership and engagement on Netflix, while also raising awareness and interest in our award-winning content on AMC-branded and partner platforms across our distribution ecosystem.”
The AMC deal comes amid a larger strategy shift for the cable network company, which has been run by Dolan, the wife of company owner James Dolan, since Feb. 27, 2023. Previously, Dolan had served as founder and CEO of TV analytics firm 605.
Under Dolan, AMC tested a similar plan to this Netflix pact in 2023 when it sent “Fear the Walking Dead” and six other series to Max for two months only. A source close to the studio indicates that the promo brought more attention to the series and drove traffic back to AMC’s platforms, implying that the network is not concerned about AMC+ churn.
While AMC Networks saw some streaming subscriber growth in the first quarter of this year, it also experienced a 13% drop in U.S. ad sales and has been struggling against linear headwinds in the upfronts market.
AMC isn’t the only distributor sending content to Netflix. In 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery inked a licensing deal with the streamer to bring shows like “Insecure,” “Ballers” and “Six Feet Under” to Netflix as well as its own hub, Max. In January, “Sex and the City” joined that list of titles and immediately ranked in the following week’s Netflix Top 10 chart.
Jennifer Maas contributed to this story.
