AMC Global Media Inc.

Thank you for standing by and welcome to AMC Global Media's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. To remove yourself from the queue, you may press star 1-1 again. I would now like to hand the call over to Nicholas Seibert. SVP Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to the AMC Global Media Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Joining us this morning are Kristin Dolan, Chief Executive Officer, Kim Kelleher, President and Chief Commercial Officer, Dan McDermott, Chief Content Officer and President of AMC Studios, and Hozefa Lokhandwala, Chief Financial Officer. We will begin with prepared remarks and then we'll open the call for questions. 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 our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of risks and uncertainties. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements made today. We will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures on this call. The required definitions and reconciliations can be found in the press release we issued this morning, which is available on our website at amcglobalmedia.com. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Kristin.

Thanks, Nick, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start with some news that underscores the value of our owned IP and the importance of our studio business. This morning, we announced a global co-exclusive licensing agreement with Netflix for the streaming rights to the entire Walking Dead universe, all seven series and 371 episodes. This agreement expands our relationship with one of our most important partners and creates a global streaming home for this landmark franchise. It also allows us to bring the original The Walking Dead series to AMC Plus for the first time. This new agreement highlights the strength of our studio model and ability of our owned IP to create long-term value for both AMC Global Media and our partners. Darkwinds is another example of how our content continues to find new audiences and generate value across platforms. Season 4 launched on Netflix earlier this month as part of our branded AMC collection and, as we've seen with prior seasons, immediately reached their U.S. Top 10 list. In the U.S. and around the world, our content is the foundation of partnerships with a broad range of industry leaders including Sky, Deutsche Telekom, BBC, Canal Plus, HBO Max, ITV, Netflix, Amazon, and so many others. As we noted on our last call, we expected the second quarter to be the low point for AOI with stronger performance in the back half of the year. Results were in line with these expectations. At the same time, we're pleased to share today that we are raising our guidance for the full year, which Hozefa will discuss in more detail. Our updated outlook layers in the Walking Dead licensing agreement, as well as subscriber acquisition that came in slightly below our expectations in the first half of the year, as geopolitical events and high-profile sports programming captured outsized consumer attention. Our streaming business is built around bringing passionate fans the content they love. This strategy creates an engaged and loyal base of subscribers with deep connections to our brands. We take a long range view of this business and the critical role our distribution partners play across all of our platforms, streaming, linear, and fast. As streaming and linear continue to converge, an increasing number of viewers experience our services through hard bundled arrangements. This combined distribution delivers additional value to the customer, strengthens our affiliate relationships, and builds revenue partnerships focused on the future. Across Charter and Philo, AMC Plus and All Reality have already generated 2.3 million activations. And DirecTV recently launched AMC Plus as a hard bundle offering in their entertainment genre package, which will further contribute to the growth of this category. We recently renewed with major distributors Comcast and YouTube. Our new long-term agreement with YouTube includes the distribution of our seven streaming services, and many of our fast channels, as well as the future launch of our networks in YouTube TV's genre packages. Our recent affiliate activity demonstrates the value distributors see in our portfolio and the impact of our long-range view. Over the last 12 months, we have renewed with four of the five major domestic MVPDs, including Comcast, DirecTV, Dish, and YouTube. Our upfront discussions are progressing well with strong client engagement and constructive conversations across categories. Excluding the impact of an isolated technical issue in the second quarter, domestic advertising revenue decreased in the mid-single digits. We remain encouraged by the notable improvements in advertising revenue trends and strong growth in digital in the first half of the year. Our linear brands continue to resonate with viewers. Franchise reality hits like Love After Lockup and the new series This Is Polly are delivering strong viewership and reinforcing the power of our original programming. The majority of our linear networks have seen ratings growth in primetime from the previous quarter, led by gains of 21% at WeTV. On AMC, TNA Wrestling's Thursday Night Impact just hit an all-time ratings high earlier this month and is bringing new and live viewers to the network. Acorn TV was one of the earliest streamers built around a specific genre, in this case, international crime dramas and mysteries. Last year, we launched an effort to re-energize Acorn with a slate of new shows and iconic talent, and the results have exceeded our expectations. We just renewed the breakout hit Art Detectives for a second season. Inspector Ellis, starring Sharon D. Clarke, has returned with big viewership gains over season one. In addition to the strong performance at Acorn, our other services continue to super serve their distinct audiences. In the second quarter, we saw a sequential improvement in retention and a double-digit increase in engagement across our portfolio of streaming services, even as we implemented price increases. Now for a few additional programming highlights. We're coming off another successful San Diego Comic-Con where the strength of our franchises was on full display. We announced the fourth season renewal of Anne Rice's interview with the vampire after the vampire-less stat delivered higher AMC Plus viewership versus the prior season and strong fan and critical response. We also celebrated the season three launch of The Walking Dead Dead City with a standing room only Hall H panel and screening that demonstrated the strong ongoing fan engagement and cultural impact of the series. Next month, we start production on Thunder Road, The multi-generational racing drama starring Dennis Quaid that we are making in partnership with NASCAR. This series, which has already generated strong advertiser interest, will be produced at our studio facility in Sonoya, Georgia, the longtime home of the Walking Dead franchise. In addition to creating programs for our own platforms, our studio team is actively developing projects with a range of leading distributors. Producing for others is a natural offshoot of our internal development process. You may recall that we developed and produced the breakout Apple TV Plus hit, Silo. The strength of our studio operation is rooted in production expertise, enduring creative relationships, and a long track record of creating stories that resonate with audiences. We look forward to sharing more details on these projects as they progress. Since joining the company in June, our new CFO, Hozefa Lokhandwala, has hit the ground running. He's a great addition to our leadership team and brings deep experience across media, strategy, and finance. Before I hand the call over to Hozefa, I want to take a brief moment to thank all of our partners for recognizing the value and impact of our world-class content. I'd also like to thank our team for their continued execution as we expand the audiences for our content and create additional value for our company. Hozefa, over to you.