Thomas Yeh: Great. Makes sense. And then recognizing it’s still early days on the ad tier launch, the OTT subscriptions, I noticed, it stabilized in the quarter. I’m wondering if there was a contribution or a mix shift from that. And it sounds like you see this as a potential tool to find more ways to bundle. Is the expectation that the mix of subscribers shifts more towards an emphasis on AVOD as an opportunity over time? Thank you.
Patrick O’Connell: Hi Thomas, it’s Patrick. Yes, thanks for recognizing the kind of the sequential growth there. As I referenced before, it’s really early days on the ad tier. So it’s tough to draw any kind of lessons from that yet. That being said, I think, I would point to the efficiency and kind of marketing spend and cadence of content, et cetera, on the subscriber growth — on the subscriber side. Q4, we’ll see what that looks like. It’s still too early, I think, to attribute much on the ad-supported tier, but I’ll let Kim comment as well.
Kim Kelleher: Thomas, I would just add to the second part of your question. I think it’s very important for us to have this ad-supported tier now because it allows us to participate in future bundling partnerships with parity across a non-ad-supported tier or an ad-free tier and an ad tier. So making it seamless for the consumer and giving them that choice regardless of the tier they decide to come in.
Thomas Yeh: Makes sense. Thank you so much.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] We have Steve Cahall of Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
Steve Cahall: Thank you. So, Kristin, you talked a lot on this call about the importance of partnerships. And I know the Max relationship has come up a lot. And this seems to be a bigger theme that we’re seeing with more content heading on to bigger platforms to maximize its value and reach. So the question I wanted to ask you. You seem to hold nothing sacrosanct within the business in terms of how to best position it going forward. How important is AMC+ to the long-term strategy of AMC? It seems like the linear network is still a great place to premiere content and engage with subscribers. But AMC+ is competing against some of these bigger platforms that you’re finding partnerships with. So how do you just think about the strategic nature of that asset going forward?
And then Patrick, I might be doing the math wrong here, but I think your AOI guide implies a very small Q4 for AOI versus the last three quarters. Can you just talk about if there’s any content amortization timing shift in there? Is it a conservative guide or something else? Thank you.
Kristin Dolan: Great. Thanks Steve. On the AMC+ front, it’s a critical piece of what we do because it’s — again, we’ve always coupled it with the linear network. We haven’t, particularly, in the last year, put things on AMC+ that we wouldn’t put on the linear network. So we see it more as an extension of our linear offering that is available to people who consume television in a different way. That’s why we’re so excited, a, about the Xumo launch and our partnerships with the virtual MVPDs and the traditional MVPDs that include AMC+. But also this is — it’s interesting just to have products that appeal to different segments of the audience depending on their age and their habits. But each of them contain what we’ve been sort of working on for 40 years, which has curated amazing scripted dramas.
And the great thing for us, again, as Patrick mentioned, is we’re reasonably priced across all of our products, and what we deliver is general entertainment. So we believe, by being good partners and having great content, we can hold a good position in a sort of expanded basic traditional family cable type of package, whether it’s something that is traditional linear or in the more advanced kind of future-looking bundles. It’s still a bundle, it’s just delivered over IP. So it’s a critical piece. But again, I think you have to think about it as a different transmission form of what we’ve always done really well.
Patrick O’Connell: Hi Steve, it’s Patrick. On the Q4 question, I think you answered your own question. So your instincts are correct. There will be a substantial amount of amortization hits the P&L. And if I could sort of qualify the nature of the guide, I would say I expect us to be within the range. It’s not necessarily conservative. But, yes, as you look at — kind of last year, we had a similar dynamic in terms of the Q4 margin being kind of materially lower than the balance of the year. So there’s nothing more than that in there.
Steve Cahall: Great. Maybe just to follow on with that, Patrick. I think the domestic margin year-to-date is about four percentage points higher than last year with less revenue. I know you all have done a lot on cost. Do you think you can continue to expand margin at domestics over the longer term? Thanks.
Patrick O’Connell: I’m not sure expanding margin over time is going to be as easy, but we’re going to give it our all. But expanding margins could be challenging, I think.
Kristin Dolan: But I would add, we still see some significant opportunities to streamline our expenses, particularly around technology and distribution. And that’s sort of — that’s not unique to us. The marketplace is evolving. The capabilities are evolving. There’s opportunities for different cloud vendors and different distribution capabilities that really can allow us to be more efficient in the actual mechanics of delivery on a go-forward basis, and we’re looking at that really closely.
Patrick O’Connell: Yes. Steve, actually, one more point on the margin there that I’d point to would be, we’re focused on free cash flow. And so, obviously, sort of amortization has a big impact on our P&L from an AOI perspective. As we go forward, we’re more focused on free cash flow than AOI. So we’re not managing the business for margin. We’re managing it for free cash flow right now.
Steve Cahall: Very clear. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. I’m seeing no further questions in the queue. This will conclude today’s conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a pleasant day, and enjoy your weekend.
