AMC CEO Warns That Big Media Deals Won’t Work

Under pressure from Netflix and Amazon, the entertainment industry is slowly consolidating. But one of the smallest of the publicly traded entertainment firms, AMC Networks, is resisting the trend. And in an interview, AMC CEO Josh Sapan warns that some of the big deals underway may prove to be more challenging than anticipated and may need to be undone.

“I think there has been a rush at the moment toward big, and I think there is a default notion that big covers sins and that big provides insurance,” he said. “I don’t believe that to be the case, and sometimes big in the past worked, but notably it hasn’t worked and has had to be deconstructed.” He cited cultural differences as among the problems that big mergers sometimes encounter.