UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

FORM 10-K

 

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015

or

For the transition period from __________________ to __________________

Commission file number:  001-33296

 

NATIONAL CINEMEDIA, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (303) 792-3600

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:  None

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  R    No  o

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.    Yes  o    No  R

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  R    No  o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate website, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  R    No  o

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company.  See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).    Yes  o    No  R

Based on the closing sales price on July 2, 2015, the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was $902,300,527.

As of February 20, 2016, 62,738,782 shares of the registrant’s common stock (including unvested restricted stock), par value of $0.01 per share, were outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Certain portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement to be used in connection with its Annual Meeting of Stockholders and to be filed within 120 days of December 31, 2015 are incorporated by reference into Part III, Items 10-14, of this report on Form 10-K.

 

 

 

 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

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Certain Definitions

In this document, unless the context otherwise requires:

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

In addition to historical information, some of the information in this Form 10-K includes “forward-looking statements.” All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this Form 10-K, including, without limitation, certain statements under “Business,” “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” may constitute forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify these “forward-looking statements” by the specific words, including but not limited to “may,” “will,” “can,” “should,” “expects,” “forecast,” “project,” “intend,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of those words and other comparable words. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, including, but not limited to, the following:

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

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Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure

This list of factors that may affect future performance and the accuracy of forward-looking statements are illustrative and not exhaustive. Our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those indicated in these statements as a result of additional factors as more fully discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors,” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or to persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

 

 

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PART I

 

 

The Company

NCM, Inc., a Delaware corporation, was organized on October 5, 2006 and began operations on February 13, 2007 upon completion of its IPO. NCM, Inc. is a holding company that manages its consolidated subsidiary, NCM LLC.  NCM, Inc. has no business operations or material assets other than its cash and ownership interest of approximately 43.8% of the common membership units in NCM LLC as of December 31, 2015.  NCM LLC’s founding members, AMC, Cinemark and Regal, the three largest motion picture exhibition companies in the U.S., held the remaining 56.2% of NCM LLC’s common membership units as of December 31, 2015.  NCM, Inc.’s primary source of cash flow from operations is distributions from NCM LLC pursuant to the NCM LLC operating agreement.  NCM, Inc. also receives management fees pursuant to a management services agreement with NCM LLC in exchange for providing specific management services to NCM LLC.

NCM LLC has long-term ESAs with NCM LLC’s founding members (over 21 years remaining as of December 31, 2015) and multi-year agreements with certain third-party theatre circuits, referred to in this document as “network affiliates,” which expire at various dates between May 31, 2016 and July 22, 2031.  The ESAs and network affiliate agreements grant NCM LLC exclusive rights in their theatres to sell advertising, subject to limited exceptions.

On December 26, 2013, NCM LLC sold its Fathom Events business to a newly formed limited liability company owned 32% by each of the founding members and 4% by NCM LLC.  The Fathom Events business accounted for approximately 7.9% of NCM LLC’s revenue for the fiscal year ended December 26, 2013.  Refer to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” for further information.

Description of Business

Overview

NCM LLC operates the largest digital in-theatre media network in North America, through which it sells in-theatre and online advertising and promotions.  Our advertising and entertainment pre-show called “FirstLook”, lobby entertainment network (“LEN”) and programming are distributed across our digital content network (“DCN”) utilizing our proprietary digital content software (“DCS”).

We currently derive revenue principally from the sale of advertising to national, regional and local businesses within several versions of FirstLook, which we distribute to theatre screens in our digital network.  We also sell advertising programming on our LEN and other forms of advertising and promotions in theatre lobbies and online through our Cinema Accelerator product and on mobile devices through an app called Movie Night Out^®.

We believe that the reach, digital delivery and projection capabilities of our network provides an effective platform for national, regional and local advertisers to reach a large, young and affluent audience on a targeted, engaging and measurable basis.  During 2015, over 700 million patrons attended movies shown in theatres in which NCM LLC currently has exclusive cinema advertising agreements in place.  A summary of the screens in our advertising network is set forth in the table below:

Our Network

(As of December 31, 2015)

 

 

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On-Screen Advertising

Our on-screen digital FirstLook pre-feature show consists of national, regional and local advertising, as well as behind the scenes “making-of” and other entertainment content provided to us under exclusive multi-year arrangements with leading media, entertainment and technology companies (“content partners”) and other clients. The pre-feature show generally ranges in length from 20 to 30 minutes and ends at or about the advertised show time. We distribute several versions of FirstLook each month, including versions that include promotional materials for our theatre partners, entertainment content and national and regional advertisements that are targeted towards movie ratings, specific films, or groups of films related to specific film genres and local and regional advertisements that play in specific theatre markets or geographic regions.  The FirstLook pre-shows are customized with the branding of certain of the theatre circuits in which the programming plays.  We have the capability to deliver three-dimensional (“3-D”) advertising campaigns within a 3-D version of the FirstLook program prior to 3-D films.

The majority of our entertainment content segments are provided to us by content partners. Under the terms of the contracts, our content partners make available to us original content segments and make commitments (generally for terms of two years) to buy a portion of our advertising inventory at a specified cost per thousand (“CPM”).  The original content produced by these content partners typically features behind-the-scenes interviews about the “making-of” feature films, upcoming broadcasts, cable television shows, or technology products.  We also have two-year agreements to exhibit a courtesy public service announcement (“PSA”) with an insurance company and a candy company which expire at the end of 2017.  We also have a long-term agreement to display advertising of NCM LLC’s founding members’ beverage supplier.

Advertising is sold on a CPM basis to national clients, while local and regional advertising is sold on a per-screen, per-week basis, and to a lesser extent on a CPM basis.  We generally sell our national advertising units across our national network by film rating, groups of ratings or by individual film or film genre grouping. This ability to target various groups of films offers national advertisers a way to target specific audience demographics at various price points and overall cost levels, which expands the number of potential clients.

FirstLook was created in order to provide a more entertaining pre-feature program for theatre patrons and a more targeted and effective advertising platform for our advertising clients by integrating national, regional and local video advertising with entertainment content segments primarily provided by our content partners.

FirstLook is comprised of up to four segments, each approximately four to seven minutes in length. Segment four, the first section of FirstLook, begins approximately 20 to 25 minutes prior to the advertised show time and generally includes local advertising.  Segment three typically begins approximately 18 minutes prior to the advertised show time and features primarily 15 or 30-second local or regional advertisements by individual theatres, or across an entire DMA^® or geographic region.  Segment two and segment one that run closest to the advertised show time feature primarily national and regional advertisements, which are generally 30 or 60 seconds. Segment one also includes an advertisement for NCM LLC’s founding members’ beverage supplier.  Segment two and segment one begin approximately 13 minutes and 8 minutes, respectively, before the advertised show time.  Segment three, segment two and segment one include an entertainment content segment provided primarily by our content partners.  Beginning in 2015, approximately half of our content partners provided two minute entertainment content segments, while the remainder provided two and one-half minute segments.  In 2016, all of our content partners will provide two minute segments. 

We sell 3-D advertising that runs prior to select 3-D films.  The 3-D advertisements are placed at the end of the FirstLook pre-show, after a message for patrons to put on 3-D glasses. These 3-D advertisements provide average advertising CPMs that are higher than average two-dimensional (“2-D”) pricing due primarily to a fewer number of 3-D advertisements and improved recall (based on third-party research) associated with those 3-D advertisements.  In order to provide a better experience, theatre patrons are prompted to put their glasses on prior to the 3-D portion of FirstLook so they can be kept on throughout the end of the FirstLook pre-show, during the film trailers and 3-D feature film.

As of December 31, 2015, 100% of our network screens were displaying the FirstLook pre-show on digital projectors, with approximately 97% of those screens receiving content through our DCN, representing approximately 98% of our total network attendance.  As of December 31, 2015, 18,223, or 90%, of 20,361 total digital screens are equipped with more powerful digital cinema projectors, with the remainder comprised of LCD projectors.  The screens not connected to our DCN display national and regional advertisements on digital projectors through the distribution of the advertising content on USB drives that are shipped to the theatres via overnight delivery services.

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The film trailers that typically run before the feature film are not part of FirstLook.  Film trailers do not begin until after the FirstLook program ends at or about the advertised show time.

We offer multiple versions of FirstLook each month that include advertising content that is appropriate for a specific film or film rating category and branding of the specific theatre operator.  This programming flexibility provides advertisers with the ability to target specific audience demographics and gives us the ability to ensure that the content and advertising is age-appropriate for the movie audience.  We rotate the entertainment content segments between theatres approximately every two weeks to ensure that frequent moviegoers are entertained by fresh content segments.

Our goal in creating FirstLook as a branded entertainment program was to create a new “first release window” for advertising into the marketplace, similar to the way films are released first in cinemas.  To that end, we encourage advertisers to provide us with advertisements before they are shown on other media platforms, different versions of those advertisements, or original content that is specifically created for cinema.  All versions of the FirstLook are produced by our internal creative staff, including pre- and post-production services that we offer to our clients (primarily local clients), for a fee.  These high quality internal production capabilities provide the timing flexibility and cost efficiency required to produce and display the many versions of our high quality FirstLook pre-show.

The FirstLook program also includes time slots for NCM LLC’s founding members and network affiliates to advertise various activities associated with the operations of the theatres, including concessions, online ticketing partners, gift card and loyalty programs, special events presented by the theatre operator and vendors of services provided to theatres, so long as such promotion is incidental to the vendor’s service or products sold in the theatre. This time is provided by us to the theatre operator at no charge and generally includes 45 seconds within 15 minutes of show time, 15 seconds of which will be placed within 12 minutes of show time, and the remainder placed at our discretion.

Under the ESAs, up to 90 seconds of the FirstLook program can be sold to NCM LLC’s founding members to satisfy their on-screen advertising commitments under their beverage concessionaire agreements.  During the first six months of 2015, we sold 60 seconds to NCM LLC’s founding members and during the last six months of 2015, we sold 60 seconds to two of NCM LLC’s founding members and 30 seconds to one of NCM LLC’s founding members.  Per the ESA, the annual CPM change equals the prior year annual percentage change in the advertising CPM charged by NCM LLC to unaffiliated third parties during the last few minutes of the FirstLook pre-show, limited to the highest advertising CPM being then-charged by NCM LLC.  

The arrangements with NCM LLC’s founding members relating to on-screen advertising for their beverage concessionaires, the agreements with our content partners and the PSAs represented approximately $132.5 million, or approximately 30%, of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2015.

Lobby Network and Promotions

Lobby Entertainment Network (LEN). Our LEN is a network of video screens strategically located throughout the lobbies of all of our digitally equipped NCM LLC’s founding members’ theatres and the majority of our network affiliate theatres. As of December 31, 2015, our LEN had 3,104 screens in 1,519 theatres connected to our DCN. The LEN screens are strategically placed in high-traffic locations such as concession stands and film queuing and other waiting areas.  Programming on our LEN consists of an approximately 30-minute loop of branded entertainment content segments created specifically for the lobby with advertisements running between each segment. We have the scheduling flexibility to send different LEN programming to each theatre and the same program is displayed simultaneously on all lobby screens within a given theatre, which we believe provides the maximum impact for our advertisers. We sell national and local advertising on the LEN individually or bundled with on-screen or other lobby promotions. The LEN programming includes up to two minutes for NCM LLC’s founding members’ advertisements to promote activities associated with the operation of the theatres, including concessions, ticketing partners, gift card and loyalty programs, special events presented by the theatre operator and vendors of services provided to theatres, so long as such promotion is incidental to the vendor’s service. Additionally, subject to certain limitations, the LEN programming includes up to two minutes (one minute of which we provide to NCM LLC’s founding members at no cost and one minute of which NCM LLC’s founding members may purchase) to promote certain non-exclusive cross-marketing relationships entered into by the theatre operators for the purpose of increasing theatre attendance, which we call “strategic programs”.

Under the terms of the ESAs, NCM LLC’s founding members also have the right to install additional screens in their theatre lobbies, which would not display our LEN programming, but would be used to promote strategic programs or

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products sold in their theatre concessions, bars and dining operations, ticketing partner promotions, gift card and loyalty programs, special events presented by NCM LLC’s founding member and vendors of services provided to theatres, so long as such promotion is incidental to the vendor’s service.

Lobby Promotions. We also sell a wide variety of advertising and promotional products in our theatre lobbies. These products can be sold individually or bundled with on-screen, LEN, online or mobile advertising. Lobby promotions typically include:

Under the terms of the ESAs, NCM LLC’s founding members may conduct a limited number of lobby promotions at no charge in connection with strategic programs that promote motion pictures; however, such activities will not reduce the lobby promotions inventory available to us.

Our ability to provide in-lobby marketing and promotional placements in conjunction with our other marketing solutions allows us to provide integrated marketing products to advertisers with multiple interactions with theatre patrons throughout the movie-going experience, which we believe is a competitive advantage over other national media platforms.

Branded Entertainment Websites and Mobile Applications

We have a business website, ncm.com and two consumer facing websites, firstlookonline.com and movienightout.com and a mobile app called Movie Night Out.  In May 2014, NCM LLC signed a service agreement with Shazam Media Services, Inc. (“Shazam”) to allow movie-goers to explore and engage with the FirstLook pre-show content on their mobile device using the Shazam app.  In addition to allowing our advertising clients to engage the theatre audience by connecting their on-screen advertisements to their smartphones, the Shazam app allows our theatre partners to engage directly with their patrons to market online tickets, upcoming films and concession products.  This unique marketing tool will also allow our advertising clients and network affiliates to distribute coupons and other value-added elements.  Our consumer facing websites and the Shazam mobile app extend the reach of our FirstLook pre-show to consumers online and on their mobile devices and provide an opportunity to create a unique integrated bundle of marketing products for our clients. In January 2015, we launched our new digital product, Cinema Accelerator that targets moviegoers.  Cinema Accelerator identifies moviegoers through exclusive first party data sources including, geo-location services, beacons and ticket sales data for the moviegoers that enter the theatres in our network.  Using the moviegoer as our filter, we can target specific demographics, genres or layer on other data to provide to our clients as a comparison against their audience.  This service is provided through multiple channels, including online and mobile banners, online and mobile pre-roll video, tablets and Facebook newsfeed so that wherever the moviegoer is taking their information, we are there to provide it to them,.  We are selling Cinema Accelerator through a small digital sales group and through our existing national and local sales organizations.  As these online and mobile activities are supported primarily through our existing staff and infrastructure, we believe that new digital revenue could be developed and additional in-theatre advertisements could be sold due to the nature of the integrated marketing packages.  We believe that these integrated marketing packages improve branding and advertising recall due to higher frequency of the advertising and allow clients to better evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising.  

Sales and Marketing

We sell our in-theatre and online advertising products through our national, local and regional sales teams.  We market our advertising products through our marketing group located primarily in our New York City sales office.

As of December 31, 2015, we had 31 advertising sales and client development related personnel (including management and sales support staff) within our national sales group.  During 2015, approximately 42% of the total

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compensation of the national sales staff was related to bonus or commission, which is based on achieving certain sales targets in order to enhance coordination and teamwork.  Our national sales organization has proven to be highly profitable and scalable as we have not added a significant number of sales personnel as our network has expanded.  Our national sales staff is located in our sales offices in New York City, Woodland Hills (outside Los Angeles), Chicago and Detroit.

Our local and regional advertising sales staff, comprised of account directors and telesales representatives, is located throughout the country, with each covering an average of 108 screens per representative.  Their responsibility is to sell cinema advertising to local clients as well as larger regional advertisers.  During 2015, approximately 77% of the compensation for local sales staff was based on an individual sales commission on collected sales.  As our network and local business grows, it may require the addition of sales personnel to cover the new markets or screens.  As of December 31, 2015, we had 212 sales personnel (including management and sales support staff) within our local and regional sales groups, the majority of which work out of their homes located within the markets they sell.

Over the past several years, we have increased our national and local advertising revenue by expanding our network and the number of clients and client industries through sales outreach and several marketing tactics, including the expansion and improvement of research provided to clients and the addition of client and business development sales executives.  We aggressively market and sell directly to clients as well as advertising agencies, including our participation, beginning in 2012, in the television upfront advertising selling process, which is launched each year with a presentation to clients and advertising agencies in New York City during the TV Upfront week.  We also on occasion place advertising in national trade publications, and commission third-party market research to assist our sales team.  We believe that improved research regarding cinema advertising and expanded analytics about our network has provided our customers with compelling statistical evidence of the superiority of our advertising products relative to television and other traditional advertising mediums based on metrics such as brand recognition, message recall, and likeability.  In addition, based on the success of our upfront campaigns, we believe that we are capturing additional market share from traditional advertising media platforms such as broadcast and cable television. Our primary strategy has been to establish cinema advertising as a more accountable and effective advertising medium relative to other media that has not been impacted by the proliferation of the use of digital video recorders (“DVRs”) to record television programming.  As of December 31, 2015, we had 36 personnel based primarily in New York that focus on the marketing, research and public relations aspects of our advertising business.

Media and Creative Services

Our media and creative services department uses state of the art, proprietary and non-proprietary technologies and practices to ensure the consistent image and sound quality of the FirstLook pre-show and LEN programming that are distributed over our network, creating the highest possible cinema quality presentation for FirstLook, LEN presentations and all of our other in-theatre marketing products.  We believe the expertise of this group in optimizing content for cinema playback within our FirstLook pre-show and our internet sites and mobile app has been instrumental in our ability to provide a better experience for the theatre patron, to enhance our ability to attract and retain our on-screen advertising clients and build and retain relationships with network affiliates. We provide a full spectrum of 2-D and 3-D production and post-production services to our advertising clients on a per contract fee basis, or as part of their advertising commitment, including audio enhancements, color correction and noise reduction.  Our expertise in cinematic production and our ability to tailor advertisements developed for television, online or mobile to a high-definition cinema playback format facilitates the ability of national advertisers to display content originally provided for television, online or mobile, thus optimizing their original investment to the big-screen presentation. We also offer creative and production services to our clients (primarily local clients), developing full sight, sound and motion high-definition advertisements from concept to completion. This service substantially reduces the obstacles for smaller clients to invest in cinema-quality advertising and ensures a higher quality presentation for cinema patrons. During 2015, we produced and performed post-production services for approximately 47% of the local advertisements that played across our networks.  NCM LLC’s founding members also engage us for the production of their on-screen concession product advertisements and policy trailers.

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Technology and Other Corporate Branding

We utilize our digital media expertise, our proprietary DCS and various digital network technologies to deliver a high quality cinema advertising pre-show to our network theatres. These technologies facilitate the delivery of a high-quality entertainment experience and provide advertising clients a lower cost and more programming flexibility.  Moreover, our technology allows significant operational and scheduling flexibility to our advertising clients that can target various demographic groups by location, film rating or film title and measure advertising audience size and efficiently monitor and provide audit data of the on-screen playback.

We employ a satellite network to distribute content to our theatres. Our DCN, which is the combination of a satellite distribution network and a terrestrial network, distributes our FirstLook pre-show content to 20,361 screens, 1,617 theatres and approximately 3.4 million seats, representing 98% of the total attendance of our advertising network as of December 31, 2015.  Approximately 90% of our network is equipped with digital cinema projectors and 10% with LCD projectors.

The satellite technology we use provides a cost-effective means to deliver live and pre-recorded digital content to theatres.  We employ a variety of technologies that “wrap” around the satellite process to help provide uninterrupted service to theatres.  For example, our proprietary DCS has automated implementation capabilities that allow for data files to be multicast to specific screens, theatres or groups of screens or theatres throughout our DCN. Our digital content system operated in our network operations center (“NOC”) in our Centennial, Colorado headquarters, combined with in-theatre systems that are connected to the Alternative Content Engine (“ACE”) are interfaced with our satellite provider network to dynamically control the quality, placement, timing of playback and completeness of content within specific auditoriums.  The integrated DCN (including the DCS software) is controlled by our NOC which supports and monitors approximately 99,000 network hardware devices and approximately 598,000 maintenance alarm technology points within the theatre network as of December 31, 2015.

Through our NOC, we have access to and can monitor and initiate repairs to the equipment in our entire digital network of theatres. Our NOC operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Digital content is uploaded from our NOC and distributed through the DCN to theatres in advance of playback.  The content is delivered via multicast technology to all theatres in our network and received by our theatre management system where it is held until displayed in specified theatre auditoriums according to its contract terms.  Each theatre auditorium has a hardware and software architecture that controls the content to be shown in the auditoriums or over the LEN in the theatre lobby. After the theatre management system receives digital content, confirmation of content playback is returned via satellite to our NOC to be included in “post” reports provided to our advertising clients.

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe that our key competitive strengths include:

Superior National Advertising Network

We believe that our national advertising network delivers measurable results versus television, online and mobile or other video advertising networks that we compete against, by allowing for targeting of marketing messages primarily based on the film title, rating or film genre group to a large, young and affluent audience, yielding a competitive return on investment for advertisers as compared to traditional national and local media platforms. As a result, we are able to compete effectively for marketing spending by local and national advertisers through our relationships with a diversified group of local and national advertisers and agencies throughout the U.S.  The following are the key competitive strengths of our advertising network:

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We plan to continue to expand our network through the addition of new network affiliates and theatres built or acquired by our founding members and existing network affiliates.  Under the terms of the ESAs and common unit adjustment agreement with NCM LLC’s founding members and our network affiliate agreements, all new theatres built or acquired (subject to existing advertising sales agreements) by NCM LLC’s founding members or network affiliates will become part of our network. Since NCM Inc.’s February 2007 IPO, NCM LLC’s founding members have added approximately 3,900 net new screens and 36 network affiliates have been added to our network with approximately 2,500 screens.  We expect this expansion to continue to improve our geographic coverage and enhance our ability to compete with other national advertising mediums, including television, online and mobile video advertising platforms.

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Scalable, State-of-the-Art Digital Content Distribution Technology

Our use of the combination of a satellite and terrestrial network technology, combined with the design and functionality of our DCS and NOC infrastructure make our network efficient and scalable and allow us to target specific audiences based primarily on film title and rating desired by our advertising clients and provide scheduling timing flexibility that is similar to advertising on television.  Our proprietary DCS provides many distribution, scheduling, reporting and auditing features. We currently playback over 4 million digital content files per day through our DCS. Our DCS also provides the ability to program advertisements from our NOC as required by advertising clients, which shortens lead times and provides increased flexibility to change messages or target specific audiences for our advertising clients.

As of December 31, 2015, our advertising network of 20,361 screens was 100% digital.  In 2010, we began to connect our DCN to the higher quality digital cinema projectors being installed by NCM LLC’s founding members and network affiliates. These digital cinema projectors provide a much higher quality 2-D image and the ability to project 3-D advertising on screens that are equipped with 3-D playback technology.

Our NOC, DCS and other network software also provide us with the capability to directly monitor approximately 99,000 in-theatre network devices and approximately 598,000 maintenance alarm technology points within our theatre network on a near real-time 24/7 basis as of December 31, 2015, providing high network reliability and timely reporting as required by our advertising clients. The scalability of our NOC and distribution technology has allowed us to increase the number of devices and alarm points with minimal additional capital expenditures or personnel, and we expect to benefit from this scalability in the future as we add new theatres from NCM LLC’s founding members, our existing network affiliate relationships and the addition of new network affiliates.

Innovative, Branded Digital Pre-Feature Content

We believe that our digital entertainment and advertising pre-feature program, FirstLook, provides a high-quality entertainment experience for patrons and an effective marketing platform for advertisers.  We have branded our pre-feature shows, FirstLook, to reinforce our goal of creating the “first release window” for advertising into the marketplace, similar to the way that films are released first in cinemas. We partner with leading media, entertainment and technology companies to provide more original content for the audience and more impact for the advertiser. We have designed the FirstLook programs with separate local and national “pods,” consistent with the placement on television networks.  We also produce a 3-D segment of FirstLook.  We believe the ability to distribute 3-D advertisements across our national network is a unique selling proposition versus television, online and mobile and thus will enhance our national advertising revenue growth in the future.

Our relationships with our content partners and PSA sponsors under exclusive multi-year contractual agreements provide high quality entertainment content that is dispersed throughout the show. The multi-year contracts with our content partners, our PSA sponsors, and arrangements to satisfy NCM LLC’s founding members’ on-screen marketing obligations to their beverage concessionaires provide a significant upfront revenue commitment, accounting for approximately 30% of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2015.  According to customer research conducted by us and independent research companies, the production of a higher quality branded pre-feature program improves the entertainment experience for patrons as well as the effectiveness of the advertising message.

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Integrated Marketing Products

Along with our on-screen advertising opportunities, we offer advertisers the opportunity to integrate and reinforce their on-screen advertisements with various online and mobile marketing and in-lobby and LEN marketing.

Exposing patrons to an integrated marketing campaign of online, mobile, in-lobby and on-screen advertising creates a consistent marketing message through multiple touch points during the entire movie-going experience.  The marketing interaction for our clients begins when consumers choose a film or event online or on mobile devices and continues through the subsequent entertainment experience in the theatre, lobbies, and through marketing pre-shows prior to the feature film and extends beyond the theatre experience through subsequent online/mobile interaction.  We believe these multiple marketing impressions through the entire entertainment experience allows our advertisers to extend the exposure for their brands and products and create a more engaging “relationship” with the consumer that is not available with broadcast or cable television or traditional display advertising.

Strong Operating Margins with Limited Capital Requirements

Our annual Adjusted OIBDA margins have been consistently strong, ranging from approximately 49% to 52% over the last five years.  Refer to “Item 6. Selected Financial Data-Notes to the Selected Historical Financial and Operating Data” for a discussion of the calculation of Adjusted OIBDA margin, which is a non-GAAP financial measure, and the reconciliation to consolidated net income.  In addition, NCM LLC’s founding members and their Digital Cinema Integration Partners, LLC (“DCIP”) joint venture have invested substantial capital to deploy, expand and upgrade the network equipment within their theatres including the recent deployment of the higher quality digital cinema equipment.  Due to the network equipment investments made by NCM LLC’s founding members and network affiliates (in some cases through the DCIP digital cinema implementation joint venture) in new and acquired theatres and the requirements in the ESAs for the founding members to make future investments for equipment replacements, and the scalable nature of our NOC and other infrastructure, we do not expect to make major capital investments to grow our operations as our network of theatres expands.  The combination of our strong operating margins and our low capital expenditures, ranging from approximately 2% to 3% of revenues over the last five years, has allowed us to generate significant unlevered free cash flow (defined as operating income or loss before depreciation and amortization expense, share-based compensation costs, merger-related administrative costs and CEO transition costs and minus capital expenditures) before distributions to NCM LLC’s owners. For the year ended December 31, 2015, our capital expenditures were $13.0 million, of which $1.1 million primarily related to investments in network equipment to add new network affiliate theatres.  We believe our expected level of unlevered free cash flow generation should provide us with the strategic and financial flexibility to pursue the further expansion of our national theatre network, invest in other growth opportunities and continue to make dividend payments to our stockholders.

Dividend Policy

Our dividend policy is described in “Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities—Dividend Policy”.

Our Strategy

We believe that our theatre advertising network and management competencies, will provide us with an opportunity to be a strong competitor in the national and local advertising marketplace.  We believe that because our business is not being

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adversely impacted by the DVR and television programming fragmentation, it will allow us to gain market share within the broader video advertising marketplace. Our primary strategic initiatives are to:

Expand and Improve the Quality of Our Theatre Network

Expanding our Geographic Coverage and National Reach.  We continue to expand the reach and geographic coverage of our national digital network by connecting additional theatres to our network that NCM LLC’s founding members or our network affiliates buy or build and by entering into additional long-term network affiliate agreements with other theatre circuits.  The ESAs require that all of NCM LLC’s founding members’ new or acquired theatres be added to our network in return for the issuance of new NCM LLC units.  In addition to the continued expansion of our theatre network through the acquisition and new construction activities of NCM LLC’s founding members, our strategy is to continue to create new relationships with regionally located network affiliates with theatres in smaller markets where we do not currently have significant (or in many cases any) market coverage. By increasing our advertising reach and broadening our geographic coverage, we believe we will be better able to compete with other national advertising platforms such as television networks and new emerging advertising platforms distributed over the internet and on mobile devices.

Improving the Technical Quality and Content Presentation of Our Network.  Our production and distribution capabilities have been transitioned to the new digital cinema platform, including the ability to distribute and display 3-D advertising.  As of December 31, 2015, 18,223 total screens (including network affiliates) within our digital network were connected to digital cinema projection equipment, representing approximately 90% of our network screens. In order to provide for the connection of the new higher quality digital cinema equipment to our network, we agreed to an amendment of the ESAs that increased NCM LLC’s founding member theatre access fee (and reduced certain maintenance costs as LCD projectors were replaced) as the digital cinema system is connected to our advertising network.

Upgrading Our Sales and Inventory Management Systems and Our Ability to Better Target Specific Theatre Audiences for Our Clients. Over the last several years we have been upgrading our sales and inventory management systems to provide our local, regional and national sales personnel the ability to respond to client requests for proposals more quickly and provide sales management more timely visibility to our inventory availability and pricing trends.  In addition, we are continually upgrading our DCS scheduling and distribution software to provide more effective targeting of advertisements toward specific theatre audiences. In 2014, we began to enhance these existing management systems to provide the ability to target specific theatre audiences more effectively based on film genre group or other criteria desired by our advertising clients.  During 2015, we also began development of a Data Management Platform that will allow us to provide more robust audience data and other analytics associated with specific client campaigns.  

Expand Our Advertising Client Base

National Advertising. We intend to increase our market share of U.S. advertising spending by: (i) launching an aggressive sales, marketing and public relations strategy that highlights the positive attributes of our marketing product compared to other national video networks, including adjacency to high quality programming, a higher quality advertising impression that cannot be skipped and more placement certainty and transparency than online and mobile networks, (ii) launching a national upfront marketing and sales campaign that leverages and builds on the success of our upfront campaigns and provides dynamic pricing that is responsive to week-to-week market demand and inventory availability, (iii) increasing our investment in obtaining theatre patron and other data to feed our new audience targeting systems, (iv) expanding our research staff and their capabilities to better validate our selling proposition and the return on investment for advertising clients relative to other advertising networks and (v) creating a more robust integrated marketing product that bundles our on-screen, lobby promotions and online and mobile platforms (see more discussion below). These strategies are designed to expand our relationships with existing advertising clients and broaden our advertising client base in new and existing client industries.

Over the last several years our national sales team was successful in this effort to expand our national client base, as we added 46 clients in 2015 that were first time clients or had not advertised with us since our IPO.  These new clients added in 2015 included companies in the apparel, auto parts, computer software, education, electronics, health, home audio/video equipment, insurance, internet, liquor, movie studio, personal care, pharmaceutical, pet store, prepared food, restaurant, spas, sporting good, supermarket, telecommunications and video game industries.  We have expanded our client base by approximately 108% to 470 national advertisers from 2009 through the end of 2015.  Despite this growth, we believe there are still thousands of clients that currently advertise on television, the internet or on mobile devices that do not use our

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network.  For instance, our share of spending by clients in the quick-service restaurant (“QSR”), consumer package goods (“CPG”) and retailer industries, among other industries, is relatively low compared to television, online and mobile.

Beginning in 2012, we began to participate in the television upfront advertising selling process, including a presentation in New York City in early May during the TV Upfront week. In 2015, this upfront strategy yielded positive results as we believe the increased market awareness among media buyers and clients created during the previous year’s upfront presentations raised our credibility and allowed us to gain upfront commitments traditionally made exclusively to cable and broadcast television networks, and more recently online and mobile networks. We believe that over time, this greater shift toward more upfront commitments, allows us to bundle several flights throughout the year will help to increase our share of video advertising spending by increasing the number of clients and client industries that buy our network and stabilize month-to-month and quarter-to-quarter CPM volatility by increasing overall inventory utilization and balancing that utilization throughout the year. Consistent with the television industry upfront booking practices, a portion of our upfront commitments have cancellation options or options to reduce the amount that advertisers may purchase that could reduce what is ultimately spent by clients that have made upfront commitments and we would need to rely on the scatter market to replace those commitments.

Local and regional advertising. We intend to increase our market share of local and regional advertising spending by: (i) aggressively marketing our local and regional advertising products, including direct marketing campaigns to businesses within a specified radius of our network theatres and through our partnership with STRATA, a software company, whereby local and regional advertisers may purchase advertising on our network in the spot marketplace using STRATA’s software. (ii) aggressively bundling theatre lobby promotions with on-screen campaigns, (iii)  continuing to add high quality local salespeople and sales management executives to better cover the existing and new network theatres, particularly those with low inventory utilization, (iv) continuing to strengthen our regional sales team to focus exclusively on larger regional clients, such as car dealer associations, state agencies, insurance companies, quick service restaurants, or QSRs, casual dining, tourism, education, healthcare and retail, that operate across an entire DMA^®, multiple DMAs^® or states, (v) providing access to better FirstLook inventory for our regional advertising clients, (vi) improving proposal and inventory management systems, (vii) continuing to implement more robust training to support our local sales directors and sales management and (viii) exploring expansion into new regional marketplaces.  Due to the relatively low percentage of local advertising inventory sold today in many of our theatres, we believe that an opportunity exists to continue to expand our local and regional business.  We have also benefited from our efforts to reduce local salesperson attrition, providing balanced commissions and benefit packages and training and other corporate support.

Expand Our Internet/Mobile Platform

Advertising clients are increasingly seeking new ways to create integrated marketing solutions across multiple digital platforms. By bundling our on-screen and in-theatre promotional marketing products with online, mobile and video playback inventory, we allow clients to benefit from a bundle of digital marketing products focused on the entertainment consumer.  During 2015, we launched a new digital product, Cinema Accelerator, that targets frequent movie-goers in addition to the sale of our 100% owned consumer sites, firstlookonline.com and movienightout.com and our mobile app, Movie Night Out. In 2014, we also entered into a strategic marketing and selling relationship with the popular Shazam app to allow our clients to use their on-screen advertisements to directly engage movie-goers through their smartphones.

Continue to Attract and Retain High Quality Management and Staff

Our success is very much tied to the quality of our management and staff.  In order to ensure that we retain and attract high quality personnel, we seek to maintain a culture that focuses on teamwork and personal growth, as well as, maintain effective and transparent lines of communication.  We also make meaningful investments in internal, as well as external, training programs for our management and staff to ensure that our personnel have the technical and sales, as well as, management skills to drive our business growth. We have adopted a succession plan that includes short-term and long-term planning elements to allow us to successfully continue operations should any of our senior management team become unavailable to us, which we executed when our Chief Executive Officer announced his resignation in August 2015.

Intellectual Property Rights

We have been granted a perpetual, royalty-free license from NCM LLC’s founding members to use certain proprietary software for the delivery of digital advertising and other content through our DCN to screens in the U.S. We have made

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improvements to this software since the IPO date and we own those improvements exclusively, except for improvements that were developed jointly by us and NCM LLC’s founding members.

We have secured U.S. trademark registrations for NCM, National CineMedia, NCM Media Networks, and Movie Night Out.  It is our practice to defend our trademarks and other intellectual property rights, including the associated goodwill, from infringement by others. We are aware that other persons or entities may use names and marks containing variations of our registered trademarks and other marks and trade names. Potentially, claims alleging infringement of intellectual property rights, such as trademark infringement, could be brought against us by the users of those other names and marks. If any such infringement claim were to prove successful in preventing us from either using or prohibiting a competitor’s use of our registered trademarks or other marks or trade names, our ability to build brand identity could be negatively impacted.

Customers

Advertising Customers. Our advertising business has a diverse customer base, consisting of national and local advertisers.  As of December 31, 2015, we had displayed advertising since 2006 with 470 national advertisers across a wide variety of industries. During the year ended December 31, 2015, we derived 69.3% of our advertising revenue from national clients (including advertising agencies that represent our clients), 6.7% from NCM LLC’s founding members’ beverage agreements and 24.0% from our relationships with thousands of local advertisers across the country (including advertising agencies that represent these clients).

Each of NCM LLC’s founding members has a relationship with a beverage concessionaire under which they are obligated to provide on-screen advertising time as part of their agreement to purchase branded beverages sold in their theatres. During the first six months of 2015, we sold 60 seconds to each of NCM LLC’s founding members and during the last six months of 2015, we sold 60 seconds to two of NCM LLC’s founding members and 30 seconds to one of NCM LLC’s founding members. The ESAs provide for NCM LLC’s founding members to purchase this on-screen advertising time at a rate (intended to approximate a market rate) that is provided in the ESA.  During 2015, the beverage concessionaire revenue was 6.7% of our total revenue.

Content Partners and PSAs. We have multi-year contractual relationships that provide entertainment content segments in the FirstLook program and minimum annual advertising spending commitments with various entertainment, media, confections and technology companies.  These agreements require that the content partners will provide non-commercial content segments that are entertaining, informative or educational in nature and will purchase a specified dollar amount of advertising at a specified CPM over a one or two-year period with options to renew, exercisable at the content partner’s option.  We also have exclusive PSAs reminding moviegoers to silence their cell phones and refrain from texting during feature films.  During 2015, the total advertising purchased by these content partners and PSAs represented approximately 23% of our total revenue.

Competition

Our advertising business competes in the estimated $173 billion U.S. advertising industry with many other forms of marketing media, including television, radio, print media, internet, mobile and outdoor display advertising. While cinema advertising represents a small portion of the advertising industry today, we believe it is well positioned to capitalize on the shift of advertising spending away from traditional media, in particular television, to more targeted and effective forms of digital media. As the number of online and mobile media platforms continues to increase, the ability to achieve ubiquitous coverage of U.S. households has become an important competitive factor.  It will also be important to provide clients the ability to target narrow consumer demographic groups and engage directly with individual consumers and to provide measurable third-party marketing information. We believe that proliferation of online and mobile platforms and other technology such as DVRs that enable consumers the ability to consume media (including advertising) when, where and how they want and which provide improved data collection may increase advertisers’ demand for online and mobile advertising platforms and could increase demand for cinema advertising where the risk of advertisements not being viewed is reduced.  Thus, our network is well positioned to benefit from several broad market trends, most noticeably the increasing adoption of DVRs and other new digital technology that allows consumers to skip advertisements and the fragmentation of programming to online video platforms. Cinema is one of the few media platforms where consumers cannot skip advertisements.

Through the visual quality and impact of the big screen and surround sound, we are able to display high impact advertising impressions to our audiences. According to Nielsen Brand Effect, cinema advertising has generated ad recall of

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up to three times greater than the same advertising shown on television. Given our recent network expansion and improvements in the capabilities of our digital network technology implemented over the last few years, we are beginning to provide a broader audience and increase the flexibility to tailor our advertising programs, providing a more entertaining consumer experience and a more effective advertising platform for advertisers. We also believe that as online and mobile video platforms expand with the proliferation of viewing devices, such as larger smartphones and tablets, video programming will become more fragmented and as our national reach expands and we create a higher quality presentation, our network will become even more valuable to marketers.

Our advertising business also competes with many other providers of cinema advertising, which vary substantially in size.  As a large provider of cinema advertising in the U.S., we believe that we are able to generate economies of scale, operating efficiencies and enhanced opportunities for our clients to access a national and local audience as well as allowing us to better compete with television and other national advertising networks.  This ability to provide an attractive product to advertisers provides immediate benefits to our network affiliates as our network affiliates are paid through agreements that pay them based upon the advertising revenue generated in their theatres, while NCM LLC’s founding members benefit through their ownership of NCM LLC.

Employees

We have 634 employees as of December 31, 2015. Our employees are located in our Centennial, Colorado headquarters, in our advertising sales offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit, and our software development office in Minneapolis.  We also have many local advertising account executives and field maintenance technicians that work primarily from their homes throughout the U.S.  None of our employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements.  We believe that we have a good relationship with our employees.

Government Regulation

Currently, we are not subject to regulations specific to the sale and distribution of cinema advertising. We are subject to federal, state and local laws that govern businesses generally such as wage and hour and worker compensation laws.

Available Information

We maintain a website at www.ncm.com, on which we will post free of charge our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to these reports under the heading “Investor Relations” located at the bottom of the page as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).  We also regularly post information about the Company on the Investor Relations page. We do not incorporate the information on our website into this document and you should not consider any information on, or that can be accessed through, our website as part of this document.  You may read and copy any materials we file with the SEC at the Securities and Exchange Commission Public Reference Room at 100 F. Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549.  The SEC also maintains a website that contains our reports and other information at www.sec.gov.

Executive Officers of the Registrant

Shown below are the names, ages as of the filing date of this Form 10-K and current positions of our executive officers. There are no family relationships between any of the persons listed below, or between any of such persons and any of the directors of the Company or any persons nominated or chosen by the Company to become a director or executive officer of the Company.

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Andrew J. England. Mr. England was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Director of NCM, Inc. on January 1, 2016. Mr. England has a long career in marketing, previously serving as the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of MillerCoors, LLC from 2010 until July 2015.  From 2008 to 2010, Mr. England served as the Chief Marketing Officer of the then newly formed MillerCoors, LLC.  From 2006 to 2008 he served as Chief Marketing Officer of Coors Brewing Co.  Prior to that, Mr. England was Vice President and General Manager of Hershey’s Snacks division, Director of the Reese’s Brand, and carried out various marketing and brand management roles for over ten years at Nabisco Biscuit Company and Cadbury Schweppes.  Mr. England holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Science from Durham University in the United Kingdom.

Clifford E. Marks. Mr. Marks was appointed President of Sales and Marketing of NCM, Inc. in February 2007 and held those same positions with NCM LLC since March 2005. He has been an advertising, marketing and sales professional for 25 years. Prior to his current position, Mr. Marks served as president of sales and marketing with Regal Entertainment Group’s media subsidiary, Regal CineMedia Corporation, from May 2002 to May 2005. Before joining Regal CineMedia, Mr. Marks was a senior vice president at ESPN/ABC Sports where he oversaw its advertising sales organization from 1998 to May 2002.

Ralph E. Hardy. Mr. Hardy was appointed Executive Vice President and General Counsel of NCM, Inc. in February 2007 and held those same positions with NCM LLC since March 2005. Prior to his current position, from May 2002 to May 2005, Mr. Hardy served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Regal CineMedia Corporation. From 1989 to 2002, Mr. Hardy has held various legal executive positions with United Artists Theatre Company and its predecessors.

Alfonso P. Rosabal, Jr.  Mr. Rosabal was appointed Executive Vice President, Chief Operations Officer and Chief Technology Officer of NCM, Inc. in December 2013.  Prior to this appointment, Mr. Rosabal served as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for NCM LLC since May 2010.  Prior to joining NCM LLC, Mr. Rosabal served as Chief Technology Officer for the City of Denver from November 2007 to May 2010 where he oversaw technology operations.  Mr. Rosabal has been a technology and operations executive for over 20 years and his previous experience includes positions with Nextel Communications, WPP and Ford Motor Company subsidiaries, IBM and the Department of Defense.

David J. Oddo.  Mr. Oddo was appointed Interim Co-Chief Financial Officer (principal financial officer) in March 2013.  Mr. Oddo has served as NCM LLC’s Senior Vice President, Finance since August 2013 and was appointed Senior Vice President, Finance of NCM, Inc. in January 2014.  Prior to this role, Mr. Oddo served as Vice President, Finance of NCM LLC since January 2009.  From 1991 to 2009, Mr. Oddo has held various internal audit, accounting and finance positions with United Artists Theatre Company, Regal CineMedia Corporation and NCM LLC.

Jeffrey T. Cabot.  Mr. Cabot was appointed Interim Co-Chief Financial Officer (principal accounting officer) in March 2013.  Mr. Cabot has served as NCM LLC’s Senior Vice President, Controller since January 2012 and was appointed Senior Vice President, Controller of NCM, Inc. in January 2014.  Prior to joining NCM LLC, Mr. Cabot served in an international accounting role at Molycorp, Inc., a rare earth and rare metals company, from May 2011 to December 2011.  From April 2008 to August 2010, Mr. Cabot served as Director of Finance for Liberty Global Japan, the largest cable operator in Japan and a subsidiary of Liberty Global Inc.

 

 

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Ownership of the common stock of the Company involves certain risks.  Holders of the Company’s securities and prospective investors should consider carefully the following risks and other information in this document, including our historical financial statements and related notes included herein. The risks and uncertainties described in this document are not the only ones facing us.  If any of the risks and uncertainties described in this document actually occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected in a material way. This could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline, perhaps significantly, and you may lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Significant declines in theatre attendance could reduce the attractiveness of cinema advertising and could reduce our revenue

Our business is affected by the level of theatre attendance by NCM LLC’s founding members and to a lesser extent our network affiliates, who operate in a highly competitive industry whose attendance is reliant on the presence of motion pictures that attract audiences. From the mid-1990s through 2002, the number of movie screens and the level of theatre attendance in the U.S. increased substantially, as movie theatres began to build larger “megaplex” theatres that offered new amenities such as stadium seating, improved projection quality and superior sound systems, and studios began to increase the number of motion pictures produced and increased the marketing budgets to promote those films.  From 1970 through 2015, the box office has fluctuated from year to year but has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 4.8%.  Over the last 20 years, theatre attendance has fluctuated from year to year but on average has remained relatively flat at an aggregate annual growth rate of less than 0.5%.  If future theatre attendance declines significantly over an extended time period, one or more of NCM LLC’s founding members or network affiliates may face financial difficulties and could be forced to sell or close theatres or reduce the number of screens it builds or upgrades. Attendance may also decline if the theatres in our network fail to maintain their theatres and provide amenities that consumers prefer, if they cannot compete with other out-of-home entertainment, including on pricing, or if studios begin to reduce the number of feature films produced and their investments in those films or reduce the investments made to market those films. NCM LLC’s network theatre circuits also may not successfully compete for licenses to exhibit quality films and are not assured a consistent supply of motion pictures since they do not have long-term arrangements with major film distributors. Any of these circumstances could reduce our revenue because our national advertising revenue, and local advertising to a lesser extent, depends on the number of theatre patrons who view our advertising and pre-feature show.

Further, the value of our advertising business could be adversely affected by a decline in theatre attendance or even the perception by media buyers that our network is no longer relevant to their marketing plan due to the decreases in attendance and geographic coverage. Factors that could reduce attendance at our network theatres include the following:

In addition, the value of our national on-screen advertising and to a lesser extent our local and regional advertising is based on the number of theatre patrons that are in their seats and thus have the opportunity to view the FirstLook pre-show. The number of patrons that are in a theatre seat could be adversely impacted by changes in theatre operating policies and patron amenities, including the number and length of trailers for upcoming films that are played prior to the start of the feature film and the offering of reserved seating.  Theatres are also installing new larger, more comfortable seating into theatres that have been viewed favorably by theatre patrons.  The installation of these larger seats reduces the number of seats in a theatre auditorium, which could decrease the number of theatre patrons that view our FirstLook pre-show that may adversely impact our operating results.  

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The markets for advertising are competitive and we may be unable to compete successfully

The market for advertising is very competitive. Cinema advertising is a small component of video advertising in the U.S. and thus, we must compete with established, larger and better known national and local media platforms such as cable, broadcast and satellite television networks and other video media platforms including those distributed on the internet and mobile networks. In addition to these video advertising platforms, we compete to a lesser extent for advertising directly with several additional media platforms, including radio, various local print media and billboards. We also compete with several other local and national cinema advertising companies.  We expect all of these competitors to devote significant effort to maintaining and growing their business at our expense.  We also expect existing competitors and new entrants to the advertising business, most notably the online and mobile advertising companies, to constantly revise and improve their business models to meet expectations of advertising clients or competing media platforms, including us.  If we cannot respond effectively to changes in the media marketplace in response to new entrants or advances by our existing competitors, our business may be adversely affected.

If we do not maintain our technological advantage, our business could fail to grow and revenue and operating margins could decline

Failure to successfully or cost-effectively implement upgrades to our in-theatre advertising network and proposal and inventory control, audience targeting and other management systems could limit our ability to offer our clients innovative unique, integrated and targeted marketing products, which could limit our future revenue growth. New advertising platforms such as online and mobile networks, and traditional mediums including television networks are beginning to use new digital technology to reach a broader audience with more targeted marketing products, and failure by us to upgrade our technology could hurt our ability to compete with those companies.  Under the ESAs, the founding members, are required to provide technology that is consistent with that in place at the signing of the ESA. We may request that NCM LLC’s founding members upgrade the equipment or software installed in their theatres, but we must negotiate with NCM LLC’s founding members as to the terms of such upgrade, including cost sharing terms, if any.  For instance, during 2010 we entered into an amendment to the ESA to allow us to connect our digital network to NCM LLC’s founding members’ new digital cinema projection systems so that we could display our advertising (including 3-D) on the higher quality digital projection systems.  As of December 31, 2015 we had 16,981 screens, or 90% of our network screens, that were connected to digital cinema projection equipment and we expect to continue to convert the remaining screens with LCD digital projectors to these higher quality digital cinema projectors in the future.  If we are not able to come to an agreement on a future upgrade request, we may elect to pay for the upgrades requested which could result in our incurring significant capital expenditures, which could adversely affect our results.  Over the last several years, we have been upgrading our proposal and inventory control systems, and in 2014 and 2015, we began to develop enhancements to these systems that will allow us to target theatre audiences more effectively.  The failure or delay in implementation of such upgrades or problems with the integration with our other systems and software could slow or prevent the growth of our business in the future.  In addition, the failure or delay in implementation of such upgrades or problems with the integration of our systems and software could slow or prevent the growth of our business.

Economic uncertainty or deterioration in economic conditions may adversely impact our business, operating results or financial condition

The financial markets have experienced extreme disruption and volatility and certain parts of the world-wide economy remain fragile. A future decline in consumer confidence in the U.S. may lead to decreased demand for our services or delay in payments by our advertising customers. As a result, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.  These challenging economic conditions also may result in:

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Our Adjusted OIBDA is derived from high margin advertising revenue, and the reduction in spending by or loss of a national or group of local advertisers could have a meaningful adverse effect on our business

We generated all of our Adjusted OIBDA from our high margin advertising business. A substantial portion of our advertising revenue relates to contracts with terms of a month or less. Advertisers will not continue to do business with us if they believe our advertising medium is ineffective or overly expensive. In addition, large advertisers generally have set advertising budgets, most of which are focused on traditional media platforms like television and recently online and mobile networks. Reductions in the size of advertisers’ budgets due to local or national economic trends, a shift in spending to new advertising mediums like the internet and mobile platforms or other factors could result in lower spending on cinema advertising.  Because of the high incremental margins on our individual advertising contracts, if we are unable to remain competitive and provide value to our advertising clients, they may reduce their advertising purchases or stop placing advertisements with us, which on large contracts even the loss of a small number of clients would negatively affect our Adjusted OIBDA.

The loss of any major content partner or advertising customer could significantly reduce our revenue

We derive a significant portion of our revenue from our contracts with our content partners, PSAs and NCM LLC’s founding members’ agreements to purchase on-screen advertising for their beverage concessionaires. We currently have marketing relationships with nine content partners, two of which expire in 2016 and seven in 2017. None of these companies individually accounted for over 10% of our total revenue during the year ended December 31, 2015. However, the agreements with the content partners, PSAs and beverage advertising with NCM LLC’s founding members in aggregate accounted for approximately 30%, 34% and 31% of our total revenue during the years ended December 31, 2015, January 1, 2015 and December 26, 2013, respectively.  Because we derive a significant percentage of our total revenue from a relatively small number of large companies, the loss of one or more of them as a customer could decrease our revenue and adversely affect current and future operating results.

Our plans for developing additional revenue opportunities may not be implemented and may not be achieved

In addition to our strategy to grow our advertising business, we are also considering other potential opportunities for revenue growth, which we describe in “Business—Our Strategy—Expand our Internet/Mobile Platform.”  The development of our online and mobile advertising network and mobile apps and the integration of these marketing products with our core on-screen and theatre lobby production is at an early stage and is under increasing competitive pressure from many online and mobile networks, and may not deliver future benefits that we are expecting.  Should these networks not continue to grow in importance to advertising clients and agencies, they may not provide a way to help expand our cinema advertising business as it matures and begins to compete with new or improved advertising platforms including online and mobile video services.

Our business and operations have experienced growth, and we may be unable to effectively manage or continue our growth of our network and advertising inventory

We have experienced, and may continue to experience, growth in our headcount and operations, which has placed, and could continue to place, significant demands on our management and operational infrastructure. If we do not effectively manage our growth, the quality of our services could suffer, which could negatively affect our brand and our relationships with our current advertising clients.  Additionally, we may not be able to continue to expand our network and our advertising inventory which could negatively affect our ability to add new advertising clients.  To effectively manage this growth and continue to expand our network and inventory, we will need to continue to improve our systems, including our audience targeting system which we have been upgrading in 2014 and 2015.  These enhancements and improvements could require an additional allocation of financial and management resources. If the improvements are not implemented successfully in a timely manner, our ability to manage our limited advertising inventory, create improved audience targeting capabilities for our clients and continue our growth in the future will be impaired and we may have to make significant additional expenditures to address these issues.

We depend upon our senior management and our business may be adversely affected if we cannot retain or replace them

Our success depends upon the retention of our experienced senior management with specialized industry, sales and technical knowledge and/or industry relationships. In August 2015, our President and Chief Executive Officer announced his resignation and, following a defined search process conducted by our Board of Directors, a new Chief Executive Officer was

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appointed in January 2016.  If other critical members of our senior management team leave, we might not be able to find qualified internal or external replacements; accordingly, the loss of critical members of our senior management team could have a material adverse effect on our ability to effectively pursue our business strategy and our relationships with advertisers and content partners. We do not have key-man life insurance covering any of our employees.

Changes in the ESAs with, or lack of support by, NCM LLC’s founding members could adversely affect our revenue, growth and profitability

The ESAs with NCM LLC’s founding members are critical to our business. The three ESAs each have an initial term of 30 years beginning February 13, 2007 and provide us with a five-year right of first refusal, which begins one year prior to the end of the term of the ESA on February 13, 2037.  In connection with the sale of our Fathom Events business on December 26, 2013, the ESAs were modified to remove those provisions addressing the rights and obligations related to digital programming services of the Fathom Events business unit, except for those relating to NCM LLC’s exclusive rights to sell advertising in the founding member theatres, including the right to sell Fathom event sponsorships.  NCM LLC’s founding members’ theatres represent approximately 83% of the screens and approximately 84% of the attendance in our network as of December 31, 2015. If any one of the ESAs was terminated, not renewed at its expiration or found to be unenforceable, it would have a material adverse effect on our revenue, profitability and financial condition.

The ESAs require the cooperation, investment and support of NCM LLC’s founding members, the absence of which could adversely affect us. Pursuant to the ESAs, NCM LLC’s founding members must make investments to replace digital network equipment within their theatres and equip newly constructed theatres with digital network equipment. If NCM LLC’s founding members do not have adequate financial resources or operational strength, and if they do not replace equipment or equip new theatres to maintain the level of operating functionality that we have today, or if such equipment becomes obsolete, we may have to make additional capital expenditures or our advertising revenue and operating margins may decline.

If the non-competition provisions of the ESAs are deemed unenforceable, NCM LLC’s founding members could compete against us and our business could be adversely affected

With certain limited exceptions, each of the ESAs prohibits the applicable NCM LLC founding member from engaging in any of the business activities that we provide in NCM LLC’s founding member’s theatres under the amended ESAs, and from owning interests in other entities that compete with us. These provisions are intended to prevent NCM LLC’s founding members from harming our business by providing cinema advertising services directly to their theatres or by entering into agreements with third-party cinema advertising providers. However, under state and federal law, a court may determine that a non-competition covenant is unenforceable, in whole or in part, for reasons including, but not limited to, the court’s determination that the covenant:

Enforceability of a non-competition covenant is determined by a court based on all of the facts and circumstances of the specific case at the time enforcement is sought. For this reason, it is not possible for us to predict whether, or to what extent, a court would enforce the non-competition provisions contained in the ESAs. If a court were to determine that the non-competition provisions are unenforceable, NCM LLC’s founding members could compete directly against us or enter into an agreement with another cinema advertising provider that competes against us. Any inability to enforce the non-competition provisions, in whole or in part could cause our revenue to decline.

If one of NCM LLC’s founding members declared bankruptcy, the ESA with that NCM LLC founding member may be rejected, renegotiated or deemed unenforceable

Each of NCM LLC’s founding members currently has a significant amount of indebtedness, which is rated below investment grade. In 2000 and 2001, several major motion picture exhibition companies filed for bankruptcy, including United Artists, Edwards Theatres and Regal Cinemas (which are predecessor companies to Regal), and General Cinemas and Loews Cineplex (which are predecessor companies to AMC). The industry-wide construction of larger, more expensive

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megaplexes featuring stadium seating in the late 1990s that rendered existing, smaller, sloped-floor theatres under long-term leases obsolete and unprofitable, were significant contributing factors to these bankruptcies. If a bankruptcy case were commenced by or against an NCM LLC founding member, it is possible that all or part of the ESA with that NCM LLC founding member could be rejected by a trustee in the bankruptcy case pursuant to Section 365 or Section 1123 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, or by the NCM LLC founding member, and thus not be enforceable. Alternatively, the NCM LLC founding member could seek to renegotiate the ESA in a manner less favorable to us than the existing agreement. Should the NCM LLC founding member seek to sell or otherwise dispose of theatres or remove theatres from our network through bankruptcy or for other business reasons, if the acquirer did not agree to continue to allow us to sell advertising in the acquired theatres the number of theatres in our advertising networks would be reduced which in turn would reduce the number of advertising impressions available to us and thus could reduce our advertising revenue.

The ESAs allow the founding members to engage in activities that might compete with certain elements of our business, which could reduce our revenue and growth potential

The ESAs contain certain limited exceptions to our exclusive right to use the founding members’ theatres for our advertising business. The founding members have the right to enter into a limited number of strategic cross-marketing relationships with third-party, unaffiliated businesses for the purpose of generating increased attendance or revenue (other than revenue from the sale of advertising).  These strategic marketing relationships can include the use of one minute on the LEN and certain types of lobby promotions and can be provided at no cost, but only for the purpose of promoting the products or services of those businesses while at the same time promoting the theatre circuit or the movie-going experience.  The use of LEN or lobby promotions by NCM LLC’s founding members for these advertisements and programs could result in the founding members creating relationships with advertisers that could adversely affect our current LEN and lobby promotions advertising revenue and profitability as well as the potential we have to grow that advertising revenue in the future. The LEN and lobby promotions represented approximately 4% of our total advertising revenue for the year ended December 31, 2015. The founding members do not have the right to use their movie screens (including the FirstLook program or otherwise) for promoting these cross-marketing relationships, and thus we will have the exclusive rights to advertise on the movie screens, except for limited advertising related to theatre operations.

The founding members also have the right to install a second network of video monitors in the theatre lobbies in excess of those required to be installed by the founding members for the LEN. This additional lobby video network, which we refer to as NCM LLC’s founding members’ lobby network, may be used by the founding members to promote products or services related to operating the theatres, such as concessions and loyalty programs. The presence of NCM LLC’s founding members’ lobby network within the lobby areas could reduce the effectiveness of our LEN, thereby reducing our current LEN advertising revenue and profitability and adversely affecting future revenue potential associated with that marketing platform.

Our business relies heavily on our technology systems, and any failures or disruptions may materially and adversely affect our operations

In the conduct of our business, we rely on information technology networks and systems, some of which are managed by third parties, to process, transmit and store electronic information and manage and support a variety of business processes and activities. The temporary or permanent loss of our computer equipment and software systems, through cyber and other security threats, operating malfunction, software virus, human error, natural disaster, power loss, terrorist attacks, or other catastrophic events such as the one against Sony Entertainment, could disrupt our operations and cause a material adverse impact. These problems may arise in both internally developed systems and the systems of third-party service providers.  We devote significant resources to maintaining a disaster recovery location separate from our operations, network security and other measures to protect our network from unauthorized access and misuse.  However, depending on the nature and scope of a disruption, if our technology systems were to fail and we were unable to recover in a timely way through our disaster recovery site, we would be unable to fulfill critical business functions, which could lead to a loss of customers and could harm our reputation. Technological breakdown could also interfere with our ability to comply with financial reporting and other regulatory requirements.

Our business, services, or technology may infringe on intellectual property rights owned by others, which may interfere with our ability to provide services or expose us to increased liability or expense

Intellectual property rights of our business include the copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and patents of our in-theatre, online, and mobile services, including the websites we operate at ncm.com, movienightout.com and firstlookonline.com and the features, our mobile app Movie Night Out^®, and the functionality, content, and software we make

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available through those websites and app.  We rely on our own intellectual property rights as well as intellectual property rights obtained from third parties to conduct our business and provide our in-theatre, online, and mobile services.  We may discover that our business or the technology we use to provide our in-theatre, online, or mobile services infringes patent, copyright, or other intellectual property rights owned by others.  In addition, our competitors or others may claim rights in patents, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights that will prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to provide our in-theatre, online, or mobile services either in the U.S. or in international markets. Further, the laws of certain foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the U.S.

The content we distribute through our in-theatre, online or mobile services may expose us to liability

Our in-theatre, online, and mobile services facilitate the distribution of content.  This content includes advertising-related content, as well as, movie and television content, music and other media, much of which is obtained from third parties.  Our websites also include features enabling users to upload or add their own content to the websites and modify certain content on the websites.  As a distributor of content, we face potential liability for negligence, copyright, patent or trademark infringement, or other claims based on the content that we distribute.  We or entities that we license content from may not be adequately insured or indemnified to cover claims of these types or liability that may be imposed on us.

The user information we collect and maintain through our online and mobile services may expose us to liability

In order to take advantage of some of the online and mobile services we provide users are required to establish an account on one of our websites. As a result, we will collect and maintain user information about those users.  We also collect and maintain user information about users who view certain advertising displayed through our online and mobile services.  Our collection and use of information regarding users of our online and mobile services could result in legal liability.  For example, the failure, or perceived failure, to comply with federal, state or international privacy or consumer protection-related laws or regulations or our posted privacy policies could result in actions against us by governmental entities or others.

Changes in regulations relating to the Internet or other areas of our online or mobile services may result in the need to alter our business practices or incur greater operating expenses

A number of regulations, including those referenced below, may impact our business as a result of our online or mobile services.  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has provisions that limit, but do not necessarily eliminate, liability for posting, or linking to third-party websites that include materials that infringe copyrights or other rights.  Portions of the Communications Decency Act are intended to provide statutory protections to online service providers who distribute third-party content.  The Child Online Protection Act and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act restrict the distribution of materials considered harmful to children and impose additional restrictions on the ability of online services to collect information from minors.  Additionally, there is an increasing awareness and concern regarding privacy interests, which may result in new or amended regulations.  The costs of compliance with these regulations, and other regulations relating to our online and mobile services or other areas of our business, may be significant.  The manner in which these and other regulations may be interpreted or enforced may subject us to potential liability, which in turn could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.  Changes to these and other regulations may impose additional burdens on us or otherwise adversely affect our business and financial results because of, for example, increased costs relating to legal compliance, defense against adverse claims or damages, or the reduction or elimination of features, functionality or content from our online or mobile services.  Likewise, any failure on our part to comply with these and other regulations may subject us to additional liabilities.

Our revenue and Adjusted OIBDA fluctuate from quarter to quarter and may be unpredictable, which could increase the volatility of our stock price

A weak advertising market or the shift in spending of a major client from one quarter to another, the poor performance of films released in a given quarter, a disruption in the release schedule of films or changes in the television scatter market could significantly affect quarter-to-quarter results or even affect results for the entire fiscal year.  Because our results may vary from quarter to quarter and may be unpredictable, our financial results for one quarter cannot necessarily be compared to another quarter and may not be indicative of our financial performance in subsequent quarters. These variations in our financial results could contribute to volatility in our stock price.

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Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure

We are a holding company with no operations of our own, and we depend on distributions and payments under the NCM LLC operating and management services agreements from NCM LLC to meet our ongoing obligations and to pay cash dividends on our common stock

We are a holding company with no operations of our own and have no independent ability to generate cash flow other than interest income on cash balances. Consequently, our ability to obtain operating funds primarily depends upon distributions from NCM LLC. The distribution of cash flows and other transfers of funds by NCM LLC to us are subject to statutory and contractual restrictions based upon NCM LLC’s financial performance, including NCM LLC’s compliance with the covenants in its senior secured credit facility and indentures, and the NCM LLC operating agreement. The NCM LLC senior secured credit facility and indentures limit NCM LLC’s ability to distribute cash to its members, including us, based upon certain leverage tests, with exceptions for, among other things, payment of our income taxes and a management fee to NCM, Inc. pursuant to the terms of the management services agreement (incorporated in the ESA). Refer to the information provided under Note 10 to the audited Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this document for leverage discussion. The declaration of future dividends on our common stock, will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon many factors, including NCM LLC’s results of operations, financial condition, earnings, capital requirements, limitations in our debt agreements and legal requirements.  Once the NCM, Inc. cash balances and investments are extinguished, we will be unable to pay dividends to our stockholders or pay other expenses outside the ordinary course of business if NCM LLC fails to comply with these covenants and is unable to distribute cash to us quarterly.

Pursuant to the management services agreement between us and NCM LLC, NCM LLC makes payments to us to fund our day-to-day operating expenses, such as payroll. However, if NCM LLC has insufficient cash flow to make the payments pursuant to the management services agreement, we may be unable to cover these expenses.

As a member of NCM LLC, we incur income taxes on our proportionate share of any net taxable income of NCM LLC. We have structured the NCM LLC senior secured credit facility and indentures to allow NCM LLC to distribute cash to its members (including us and NCM LLC’s founding members) in amounts sufficient to cover their tax liabilities and management fees, if any. To the extent that NCM LLC has insufficient cash flow to make such payments, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects.

NCM LLC’s substantial debt obligations could impair our financial condition or prevent us from achieving our business goals

NCM LLC is party to substantial debt obligations. The senior secured credit facility and indentures contain restrictive covenants that limit NCM LLC’s ability to take specified actions and prescribe minimum financial maintenance requirements that NCM LLC must meet.  Because NCM LLC is our only operating subsidiary, complying with these restrictions may prevent NCM LLC from taking actions that we believe would help us to grow our business.  For example, NCM LLC may be unable to make acquisitions, investments or capital expenditures as a result of such covenants.  Moreover, if NCM LLC violates those restrictive covenants or fails to meet the minimum financial requirements, it would be in default, which could, in turn, result in defaults under other obligations of NCM LLC.  Any such defaults could materially impair our financial condition and liquidity. For further information, refer to Note 10 to the audited Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this document.

If NCM LLC is unable to meet its debt service obligations, it could be forced to restructure or refinance the obligations, seek additional equity financing or sell assets. We may be unable to restructure or refinance these obligations, obtain additional equity financing or sell assets on satisfactory terms or at all. In addition, NCM LLC’s indebtedness could have other negative consequences for us, including without limitation:

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Despite NCM LLC’s current levels of debt, it or NCM, Inc. may still incur substantially more debt, including secured debt, which would increase the risks associated with NCM LLC’s level of debt

The agreements relating to NCM LLC’s debt, including the Senior Unsecured Notes, Senior Secured Notes and the senior secured credit facility, limit but do not prohibit NCM LLC’s ability to incur additional debt, and do not place any restrictions on NCM, Inc.’s ability to incur debt. Accordingly, NCM, Inc. or NCM LLC could incur additional debt in the future, including additional debt under the senior secured credit facility, additional senior or senior subordinated notes and additional secured debt. If new debt is added to current debt levels, the related risks that we now face, including those described above under “—NCM LLC’s substantial debt obligations could impair our financial condition or prevent us from achieving our business goals,” could intensify.

NCM LLC’s founding members or their affiliates may have interests that differ from those of our public stockholders and they may be able to influence our affairs

So long as an NCM LLC founding member beneficially owns at least 5% of NCM LLC’s issued and outstanding common membership units, approval of at least 90% of the directors then in office (provided that if the board has less than ten directors, then the approval of at least 80% of the directors then in office) will be required before we may take any of the following actions or we, in our capacity as manager of NCM LLC, may authorize NCM LLC to take any of the following actions:

Pursuant to a director designation agreement, so long as an NCM LLC founding member owns at least 5% of NCM LLC’s issued and outstanding common membership units, such NCM LLC founding member will have the right to designate

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a total of two nominees to our ten-member board of directors who will be voted upon by our stockholders.  One such designee by each NCM LLC founding member must meet the independence requirements of the stock exchange on which our common stock is listed.  If, at any time, any NCM LLC founding member owns less than 5% of NCM LLC’s then issued and outstanding common membership units, then such NCM LLC founding member shall cease to have any rights of designation.

If any director designee to our board designated by NCM LLC’s founding members is not appointed to our board, nominated by us or elected by our stockholders, as applicable, then each of NCM LLC’s founding members (so long as such NCM LLC founding member continues to own 5% of NCM LLC’s issued and outstanding common membership units) will be entitled to approve specified actions of NCM LLC.

For purposes of calculating the 5% ownership threshold for the supermajority director approval rights and director designation agreement provisions discussed above, shares of our common stock held by a founding member and received upon redemption of NCM LLC common membership units will be counted toward the threshold. Common membership units issued to NCM, Inc. in connection with the redemption of common membership units by an NMC LLC founding member will be excluded, so long as such NCM LLC founding member continues to hold the common stock acquired through such redemption or such NCM LLC founding member has disposed of such shares of common stock to another NCM LLC founding member. Shares of our common stock otherwise acquired by NCM LLC’s founding members will also be excluded, unless such shares of common stock were transferred by one NCM LLC founding member to another and were originally received by the transferring NCM LLC founding member upon redemption of NCM LLC common membership units.

Under these circumstances, our corporate governance documents will allow NCM LLC’s founding members and their affiliates to exercise a greater degree of influence in the operation of our business and that of NCM LLC and the management of our affairs and those of NCM LLC than is typically available to stockholders of a publicly-traded company. Even if NCM LLC’s founding members or their affiliates own a minority economic interest (but not less than 5%) in NCM LLC, they may be able to continue exerting such degree of influence over us and NCM LLC.

Different interests among NCM LLC’s founding members or between NCM LLC’s founding members and us could prevent us from achieving our business goals

For the foreseeable future, we expect that our board of directors will include directors and executive officers of NCM LLC’s founding members and other directors who may have commercial or other relationships with NCM LLC’s founding members. The majority of NCM LLC’s outstanding membership interests also are owned by NCM LLC’s founding members.  NCM LLC’s founding members compete with each other in the operation of their respective businesses and could have individual business interests that may conflict with those of the other founding members. Their differing interests could make it difficult for us to pursue strategic initiatives that require consensus among NCM LLC’s founding members.

In addition, the structural relationship we have with NCM LLC’s founding members could create conflicts of interest among NCM LLC’s founding members, or between NCM LLC’s founding members and us, in a number of areas relating to our past and ongoing relationships. There is not any formal dispute resolution procedure in place to resolve conflicts between us and an NCM LLC founding member or between NCM LLC founding members. We may not be able to resolve any potential conflicts between us and an NCM LLC founding member and, even if we do, the resolution may be less favorable to us than if we were negotiating with an unaffiliated party.

The corporate opportunity provisions in our certificate of incorporation could enable NCM LLC’s founding members to benefit from corporate opportunities that might otherwise be available to us

Our certificate of incorporation contains provisions related to corporate opportunities that may be of interest to both NCM LLC’s founding members and us. It provides that if a corporate opportunity is offered to us, NCM LLC or one or more of the officers, directors or stockholders (both direct and indirect) of NCM, Inc. or a member of NCM LLC that relates to the provision of services to motion picture theatres, use of theatres for any purpose, sale of advertising and promotional services in and around theatres and any other business related to the motion picture theatre business (except services as provided in the ESAs as from time to time amended and except as may be offered to one of our officers in his capacity as an officer), no such person shall be liable to us or any of our stockholders (or any affiliate thereof) for breach of any fiduciary or other duty by reason of the fact that such person pursues or acquires such business opportunity, directs such business opportunity to another person or fails to present such business opportunity, or information regarding such business opportunity, to us. This

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provision applies even if the business opportunity is one that we might reasonably be deemed to have pursued or had the ability or desire to pursue if granted the opportunity to do so.

In addition, our certificate of incorporation and the NCM LLC operating agreement expressly provide that NCM LLC’s founding members may have other business interests and may engage in any other businesses not specifically prohibited by the terms of the certificate of incorporation, including the exclusivity provisions of the ESAs. The parent companies of NCM LLC’s founding members are not bound by the ESAs and therefore could develop new media platforms that could compete for advertising dollars with our services. Further, we may also compete with NCM LLC’s founding members or their affiliates in the area of employee recruiting and retention. These potential conflicts of interest could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects if attractive corporate opportunities are allocated by NCM LLC’s founding members to themselves or their other affiliates or we lose key personnel to them.

The agreements between us and NCM LLC’s founding members were made in the context of an affiliated relationship and may contain different terms than comparable agreements with unaffiliated third parties

The ESAs and the other contractual agreements that we have with NCM LLC’s founding members were originally negotiated in the context of an affiliated relationship in which representatives of NCM LLC’s founding members and their affiliates comprised our entire board of directors. As a result, the financial provisions and the other terms of these agreements, such as covenants, contractual obligations on our part and on the part of NCM LLC’s founding members and termination and default provisions may be less favorable to us than terms that we might have obtained in negotiations with unaffiliated third parties in similar circumstances.

Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain anti-takeover protections that may discourage or prevent strategic transactions, including a takeover of our company, even if such a transaction would be beneficial to our stockholders

Provisions contained in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, the NCM LLC operating agreement, provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”), could delay or prevent a third party from entering into a strategic transaction with us, even if such a transaction would benefit our stockholders. For example, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws:

These restrictions could keep us from pursuing relationships with strategic partners and from raising additional capital, which could impede our ability to expand our business and strengthen our competitive position. These restrictions could also limit stockholder value by impeding a sale of us or NCM LLC.

Any future issuance of membership units by NCM LLC and subsequent redemption of such units for common stock could dilute the voting power of our existing common stockholders and adversely affect the market value of our common stock

The common unit adjustment agreement and the ESAs provide that we will issue common membership units of NCM LLC to account for changes in the number of theatre screens NCM LLC’s founding members operate and which are made part of our advertising network. Historically, in most years each of NCM LLC’s founding members has increased the number

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of screens it operates. If this trend continues, NCM LLC may issue additional common membership units to NCM LLC’s founding members to reflect their increase in net screen count. Each common membership unit may be redeemed in exchange for, at our option, shares of our common stock on a one-for-one basis or a cash payment equal to the market price of one share of our common stock. If a significant number of common membership units were issued to NCM LLC’s founding members, NCM LLC’s founding members elected to redeem such units, and we elected to issue common stock rather than cash upon redemption, the voting power of our common stockholders could be diluted. Other than the maximum number of authorized shares of common stock in our certificate of incorporation, there is no limit on the number of shares of our common stock that we may issue upon redemption of an NCM LLC founding member’s common membership units in NCM LLC. For further information, refer to Note 5 to the audited Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this document.

Our future issuance of preferred stock could dilute the voting power of our common stockholders and adversely affect the market value of our common stock

The future issuance of shares of preferred stock with voting rights may adversely affect the voting power of the holders of our other classes of voting stock, either by diluting the voting power of our other classes of voting stock if they vote together as a single class, or by giving the holders of any such preferred stock the right to block an action on which they have a separate class vote even if the action were approved by the holders of our other classes of voting stock.

The future issuance of shares of preferred stock with dividend or conversion rights, liquidation preferences or other economic terms favorable to the holders of preferred stock could adversely affect the market price for our common stock by making an investment in the common stock less attractive. For example, investors in the common stock may not wish to purchase common stock at a price above the conversion price of a series of convertible preferred stock because the holders of the preferred stock would effectively be entitled to purchase common stock at the lower conversion price causing economic dilution to the holders of common stock.

If we or NCM LLC’s founding members are determined to be an investment company, we would become subject to burdensome regulatory requirements and our business activities could be restricted

We do not believe that we are an “investment company” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As sole manager of NCM LLC, we control NCM LLC, and our interest in NCM LLC is not an “investment security” as that term is used in the Investment Company Act of 1940.  If we were to stop participating in the management of NCM LLC, our interest in NCM LLC could be deemed an “investment security” for purposes of the Investment Company Act of 1940. Generally, a company is an “investment company” if it owns investment securities having a value exceeding 40% of the value of its total assets (excluding U.S. government securities and cash items). Our sole material asset is our equity interest in NCM LLC.  A determination that such asset was an investment security could result in our being considered an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940.  As a result, we would become subject to registration and other burdensome requirements of the Investment Company Act.  In addition, the requirements of the Investment Company Act of 1940 could restrict our business activities, including our ability to issue securities.

We and NCM LLC intend to conduct our operations so that we are not deemed an investment company under the Investment Company Act.  However, if anything were to occur that would cause us to be deemed an investment company, we would become subject to restrictions imposed by the Investment Company Act of 1940.  These restrictions, including limitations on our capital structure and our ability to enter into transactions with our affiliates, could make it impractical for us to continue our business as currently conducted and could have a material adverse effect on our financial performance and operations.

We also rely on representations of NCM LLC’s founding members that they are not investment companies under the Investment Company Act.  If any NCM LLC founding member were deemed an investment company, the restrictions placed upon that NCM LLC founding member might inhibit its ability to fulfill its obligations under its ESA or restrict NCM LLC’s ability to borrow funds.

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Our tax receivable agreement with NCM LLC’s founding members is expected to reduce the amount of overall cash flow that would otherwise be available to us and will increase our potential exposure to the financial condition of NCM LLC’s founding members

Our initial public offering and related transactions have the effect of reducing the amounts NCM, Inc. would otherwise pay in the future to various tax authorities as a result of an increase in its proportionate share of tax basis in NCM LLC’s tangible and intangible assets. We have agreed in our tax receivable agreement with NCM LLC’s founding members to pay to NCM LLC’s founding members 90% of the amount by which NCM, Inc.’s tax payments to various tax authorities are reduced as a result of the increase in tax basis. After paying these reduced amounts to tax authorities, if it is determined as a result of an income tax audit or examination that any amount of NCM, Inc.’s claimed tax benefits should not have been available, NCM, Inc. may be required to pay additional taxes and possibly penalties and interest to one or more tax authorities. If this were to occur and if one or more of NCM LLC’s founding members was insolvent or bankrupt or otherwise unable to make payment under its indemnification obligation under the tax receivable agreement, then NCM, Inc.’s financial condition could be negatively impacted.

The substantial number of shares that are eligible for sale could cause the market price for our common stock to decline or make it difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future

We cannot predict the effect, if any, that market sales of shares of common stock by NCM LLC’s founding members will have on the market price of our common stock from time to time. Sales of substantial amounts of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that those sales will occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline or make future offerings of our equity securities more difficult. If we are unable to sell equity securities at times and prices that we deem appropriate, we may be unable to fund growth. The founding members may receive up to 75,903,818 shares of common stock upon redemption of their outstanding common membership units of NCM LLC. The resale of these shares of common stock has been registered as required by the terms of the registration rights agreement between NCM Inc. and the NCM LLC founding members. Additionally, once options and restricted stock held by our employees become vested and/or exercisable, as applicable, to the extent that they are not held by one of our affiliates, the shares acquired upon vesting or exercise are freely tradable. Refer to Note 11 the audited Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this document.

 

 

None.

 

 

Information with respect to our corporate headquarters and regional offices is presented below as of December 31, 2015.  We own no material real property.  We believe that all of our present facilities are adequate for our current needs and that additional space is available for future expansion on acceptable terms.

 

 

 

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We are sometimes involved in legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of business. We are not aware of any other litigation currently pending that would have a material adverse effect on our operating results or financial condition.

 

 

Not applicable.

 

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PART II

 

 

Our common stock, $0.01 par value, has traded on The NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “NCMI” since February 8, 2007 (our IPO closed on February 13, 2007). There were 194 stockholders of record as of February 20, 2016 (does not include beneficial holders of shares held in “street name”).  The following table sets forth the historical high and low sales prices per share for our common stock as reported on The NASDAQ Global Market for the fiscal periods indicated.

 

 

Dividend Policy

We intend to distribute over time a substantial portion of our free cash flow (distributions from NCM LLC less income taxes and payments under the tax receivable agreement with NCM LLC’s founding members) in the form of dividends to our stockholders.  The declaration, payment, timing and amount of any future dividends payable will be at the sole discretion of our board of directors who will take into account general economic and business conditions, our financial condition, our available cash, our current and anticipated cash needs, and any other factors that the board considers relevant. Under Delaware law, dividends may be payable only out of surplus, which is our total assets minus total liabilities less the par value of our common stock, or, if we have no surplus, out of our net profits for the fiscal year in which the dividend is declared and/or the preceding fiscal year.

Use of Proceeds from Sale of Registered Securities

None.

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

NCM Inc.’s Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and the Third Amended and Restated Limited Liability Company Operating Agreement, as amended, of NCM LLC provide a redemption right to the NCM LLC members to exchange common membership units of NCM LLC for shares of NCM, Inc.’s common stock on a one-for-one basis, or at NCM, Inc.’s option, a cash payment equal to the market price of one share of NCM, Inc.’s common stock.  

On December 21, 2015, NCM LLC received a Notice of Redemption from AMC, and NCM, Inc.’s board of directors authorized the exchange of 200,000 units for 200,000 shares of NCM, Inc. common stock.  In connection with delivering the Notice of Redemption, AMC surrendered common membership units to NCM LLC for cancellation and NCM, Inc. contributed shares of its common stock to NCM LLC in exchange for an amount of newly issued common units equal to the number of units surrendered by AMC.  NCM LLC distributed the shares of the NCM, Inc.’s common stock to AMC to complete the redemption on December 30, 2015.  The issuance of shares in this redemption was exempt from registration as a transaction by NCM, Inc. not involving a public offering.  As of December 31, 2015, these shares had not been sold and AMC owned 200,000 shares of NCM, Inc. common stock.  

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Share Repurchase Program

None.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

The table below provides information about shares delivered to the Company from restricted stock held by Company employees upon vesting for the purpose of funding the recipient’s tax withholding obligations.

 

 

Equity Compensation Plan

Refer to “Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters” for information regarding securities authorized for issuance under our equity compensation plans which is incorporated in this Item by this reference.

Stock Performance Graph

The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return on the common stock of the Company (including dividends paid) for the period December 31, 2010 through December 31, 2015 with the Russell 2000 Index and the Dow Jones US Media TSM.

The comparisons in the graph below are based upon historical data and are not indicative of, or intended to forecast, future performance of our common stock.

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Selected Historical Financial and Operating Data

The following table sets forth our historical selected financial and operating data for the periods indicated. The selected financial and operating data should be read in conjunction with the other information contained in this document, including “Business,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”, the audited historical Consolidated Financial Statements and the notes thereto included elsewhere in this document, and historical audited Consolidated Financial Statements, which have not been included in this document.

The results of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2015, January 1, 2015 and December 26, 2013 and the balance sheet data as of December 31, 2015 and January 1, 2015 are derived from the audited Consolidated Financial Statements of NCM, Inc. included elsewhere in this document. The results of operations data for the years ended December 27, 2012 and December 29, 2011 and the balance sheet data as of December 26, 2013, December 27, 2012 and December 29, 2011 are derived from the audited Consolidated Financial Statements of NCM, Inc. (not presented herein).

 

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Notes to the Selected Historical Financial and Operating Data

OIBDA and Adjusted OIBDA do not reflect integration payments as integration payments are recorded as a reduction to intangible assets.  Integration payments received are added to Adjusted OIBDA to determine our

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compliance with financial covenants under our senior secured credit facility and included in available cash distributions to NCM LLC’s founding members.  During the years ended December 31, 2015, January 1, 2015, December 26, 2013, December 27, 2012 and December 29, 2011, the Company recorded integration payments of $2.7 million, $2.2 million, $2.8 million, $0.0 million, and $1.9 million, respectively, from NCM LLC’s founding members.

The following table reconciles consolidated net income to OIBDA and Adjusted OIBDA for the periods presented (dollars in millions):

 

 

The Company has also presented total operating expenses before the merger termination fee and related merger costs within its results of operations section below which is not a financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP.  Operating expenses before the merger termination fee and related merger costs represent operating costs less costs associated with the terminated Screenvision merger.  This non-GAAP financial measure is used to provide readers a comparison of our 2015 results to our 2014 results without including the impact of the nonrecurring merger termination fee and related merger costs.  The Company believes this is an important supplemental measure because it eliminates these nonrecurring costs to highlight trends in its ongoing business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on GAAP financial measures.  Operating expenses before the merger termination fee and related merger costs should not be regarded as an alternative to operating expenses or as an indicator of operating performance, nor should it be considered in isolation of, or as a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. The Company believes that total operating expenses is the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

 

 

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As discussed in Part 1, some of the information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”), as amended.  All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this Form 10-K, including, without limitation, certain statements under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”, may constitute forward-looking statements.  In some cases, you can identify these “forward-looking statements” by the specific words, including but not limited to “may,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of those words and other comparable words.  These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties.  The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our historical financial statements and the related notes thereto included elsewhere in this document. In the following discussion and analysis, the term net income refers to net income attributable to NCM, Inc.

Overview

NCM LLC operates the largest digital in-theatre video advertising network in North America, through which it distributes national and local advertising that the Company has sold on theatre screens and video screens in theatre lobbies.  NCM LLC also sells theatre lobby promotions and online and mobile advertising that are displayed on its and other publisher websites and mobile sites and apps. Our revenue is principally derived from advertising distributed to NCM LLC’s founding member theatres in accordance with long-term ESAs (over 21 years remaining as of December 31, 2015) and to network affiliates in accordance with multi-year agreements, which expire at various dates through July 22, 2031. The weighted average remaining term (based on attendance) of the ESAs and the network affiliate agreements is 19.0 years as of December 31, 2015. The ESAs with the founding members and network affiliate agreements grant NCM LLC exclusive rights in their theatres to sell advertising, subject to limited exceptions. Our advertising FirstLook pre-show and LEN programming are distributed predominantly via satellite through our proprietary DCN. Approximately 98% of the aggregate founding member and network affiliate theatre attendance is generated by theatres connected to our DCN (the remaining 601 screens receive advertisements on USB drives) and 100% of the FirstLook pre-show is projected on digital projectors (90% digital cinema projectors and 10% LCD projectors).

Management focuses on several measurements that we believe provide us with the necessary ratios and key performance indicators to manage our business, determine how we are performing versus our internal goals and targets, and against the performance of our competitors and other benchmarks in the marketplace in which we operate. Senior executives hold meetings twice per quarter with officers, managers and staff to discuss and analyze operating results and address significant variances to budget and prior year in an effort to identify trends and changes in our business. We focus on many operating metrics including changes in revenue, OIBDA, Adjusted OIBDA and Adjusted OIBDA margin, as defined and discussed in “Notes to the Selected Historical Financial and Operating Data” above, as some of our primary measurement metrics. In addition, we monitor our monthly advertising performance measurements, including advertising inventory utilization, national and local advertising pricing (CPM), local/regional advertising rate per screen per week, local/regional and total advertising revenue per attendee, as well as, our free cash flow, dividend coverage ratio, financial leverage (net debt divided by Adjusted OIBDA) and cash balances and revolving credit facility availability to ensure debt covenant compliance and that there is adequate cash availability to fund our working capital needs and debt obligations and current and future dividends declared by our Board of Directors.

Recent Transactions

On December 26, 2013, NCM LLC sold its Fathom Events business to a newly formed limited liability company (AC JV, LLC) owned 32% by each of the founding members and 4% by NCM LLC. The Fathom Events business focused on the marketing and distribution of live and pre-recorded entertainment programming to theatre operators to provide additional programs to augment their feature film schedule. In consideration for the sale, NCM LLC received a total of $25.0 million in promissory notes from its founding members (one-third from each founding member). Refer to Note 2 to the audited Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this document.

On May 5, 2014, NCM, Inc. entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) to merge with Screenvision.  On November 3, 2014, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit seeking to enjoin the merger.  On March 16, 2015, the Company announced the termination of the Merger Agreement and the lawsuit was dismissed.  After the Merger Agreement was terminated, NCM LLC reimbursed NCM, Inc. for certain expenses pursuant to an indemnification agreement

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among NCM LLC, NCM, Inc. and the founding members.  On March 17, 2015, NCM LLC paid Screenvision an approximate $26.8 million termination payment on behalf of NCM, Inc. This payment was $2 million lower than the reverse termination fee contemplated by the Merger