• by Wayne Friedman , November 5, 2015

In the wake of some sobering financial news on Wednesday, AMC Networks reported sharply higher advertising revenue for its third-quarter financial results -- largely due to the new “Fear The Walking Dead” series.

AMC grew 52% to $210 million, including an equity partnership of BBC America, which was made October 2014. But taking that out, Todd Juenger, senior media analyst at Bernstein Research, says AMC still grew by a healthy 40% during the period thanks to the spinoff of the “Walking Dead” series as well as “Humans.”

The AMC Network itself grew 67% in August and 41% in September among 18-49 viewers, according to Nielsen. Overall viewers were up 41% in August and 13% in September for the networks.

AMC Networks also were up 20% in affiliate fees to $311 million -- all this as subscriber totals for three of its networks dropped 2%. The AMC Network itself is down to 93.8 million from 95.6 million, according to Nielsen.

On the flip side, WeTV grew 1.4% to 86.5 million.

AMC’s international business dropped 7% to $114 million, in part due to foreign currency rate changes, while the company's revenues grew 22% to $632 million and its net income 33% to $72 million.

Media stocks witnessed some sharp declines on Wednesday, triggered in part from Time Warner lower profit and revenue projections for the next four reporting periods.