Acorn TV, a subscription streaming service owned by AMC Networks, said today that it has more than one million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.
The service launched in 2011, and specializes in original and exclusive mysteries, dramas, and comedies from countries including Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Canada.
"Surpassing one million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada is a major milestone which underscores that subscribers love the trusted Acorn TV experience filled with highly entertaining and captivating original and exclusive entertainment. Acorn TV’s strong momentum, coupled with the growth of our other targeted SVOD services – Shudder, Sundance Now, and UMC – further underscores that the special interest SVOD market is growing and has vast potential, including some meaningful advantages over general interest SVOD. AMC Networks is just beginning to tap the potential universe for these services,” said Miguel Penella, president of global direct-to-consumer at AMC Networks, in a statement.
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Acorn TV in the past few months expanded its distribution to include Apple TV channels in the Apple TV app; The Roku Channel; Amazon Prime Video Channels in Canada; YouTube TV; and Android TV. The service’s growth helps AMC Networks’ toward hitting its projected growth target for its streaming services, which also include Shudder, Sundance Now and Urban Movie Channel.
In July, AMC Networks said it added more streaming video subscribers over a six-month period than ever before. CEO Josh Sapan said that through mid-year 2019, AMC’s SVODs have added approximately 400,000 subscribers in aggregate, and that the company is on target to end 2019 “comfortably ahead of 2 million subscribers.”
Sapan said that AMC Networks’ cumulative streaming subscriber total will be between 3.5 million and 4 million by 2022, and between 5 million and 7 million by 2024. The company also expects more than half a billion dollars in revenue by 2024 from its four SVODs.