A handful of AMC Plus shows, including Fear the Walking Dead and Killing Eve, will be making a temporary home on Max, Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service, from September 1 through October 31. From statements by executives from both services’ parent companies to multiple media outlets, it’s clear that the goal of the deal is to support AMC Plus and add more content to Max, which is good given that the Hollywood strikes have brought productions to a standstill and the Given the challenges AMC faces in the cable space, both companies likely need these.
“This advertising agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery is a great opportunity to bring some of our most popular and critically acclaimed programs to millions of Max subscribers across the United States for two full months,” said Dan McDermott, President of Entertainment and AMC Studios, AMC Networks , it said in a statement.
Max will be presenting the AMC Plus series in a branded “AMC+ Picks on Max” rail, and most importantly, it will be ad-free – regardless of whether you subscribe to the ad-free or ad-lite version of Max.
It’s not clear if the shows announced so far are the only ones reaching Max (we’ve tried to clarify), as the excellent Kevin Can F*** Himself, for example, doesn’t appear to be joining, but Fear of the Walking Dead and are the first season of the Tony Hillerman adaptation Dark Winds. Dark Winds is currently airing its second season on AMC Plus and AMC.
Here is the list of shows announced for the promotion so far:
That’s despite the fact that the company owns streaming rights to several high-profile, award-winning shows like The Walking Dead, Mad Men, and Hell on Wheels. The service also has several original shows, while parent company AMC Networks also owns several legacy cable channels such as BBC America and IFC, as well as horror streaming service Shudder.
AMC also announced it would launch an ad-supported tier in October. In other partnerships, it’s been featured on the Roku channel (as a paid add-on) and has long been available as a subscription channel on both Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.
The stakes are high for AMC Plus, as showcasing some of its best shows on Max — and in front of its nearly 100 million subscribers — could draw more attention to AMC Plus content. Whether it will help the streaming service gain subscribers remains to be seen.