"We're not trying to compete with or replace Netflix, Amazon, Disney, HBO Max"

One would think constantly falling ratings and seemingly stretched seasons of The Walking Dead may be enough for the makers to assume that the time is up and the show needs to stop airing now. Well, guess what? That is certainly not the case. If you have been thinking that there has already been enough Walking Dead, well, think again.

AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan recently spoke at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference in New York City during a session that was webcast. He said, "We have an awful lot of life left in The Walking Dead — I mean decades and decades of life left." The AMC Networks boss, inevitably asked by investors about the popular zombie drama's projected life cycle, said TV franchises if managed properly, can run over generations.

"That's an indication of a vital heartbeat in the franchise," Sapan added. Sapan pointed to AMC increasingly owning and controlling its own content, distributing that content on multiple platforms, while also selling it to third parties and now increasingly putting it on AMC-owned streaming video on demand services. "We're very well positioned to leverage content expertise into new distribution opportunities," Sapan argued of his four niche streamers — Shudder, Sundance Now, Acorn TV and Urban Movie Channel.

He added AMC's genre streamers reduce content acquisition costs and have "favorable" subscriber acquisition and churn performance. "We don't bid for Friends or Seinfeld. We're not trying to compete with or replace Netflix, Amazon, Disney, HBO Max, but rather our offerings are complementary," Sapan told the investors conference.