In its second-quarter 2021 earnings report Tuesday, CuriosityStream reported an additional 4 million paying subscribers, bringing its total to 20 million overall. Nearly all of those subscribers are from bundled distribution deals. The company says this marks a 40% year-over-year increase in subscribers. The company has over 3,000 original and licensed titles with paying subscribers in over 175 countries.
The company had ~700K direct-to-consumer subscribers prior to going public last year. Clint Stinchcomb, CuriosityStream’s President & CEO said that direct subscribers were up 56% year-over-year meaning that they likely just over a million OTT subscribers.
In his prepared remarks he said “During the quarter, we grew direct subscribers 56% year-over-year while retaining a higher percentage of users who signed up in Q2 2020 than any other streaming service, based on data from ANTENNA. We continue to deliver unprecedented value to our subscribers and partners in the factual category, having recently announced a landmark partnership with SPIEGEL TV, the leading producer and distributor of high-quality factual content for German-speaking audiences. This partnership bolsters our global reach by adding millions of subscribers in Europe, accelerates our growth through the addition of hundreds of hours of German-dubbed programming to our SVOD service, and extends our brand through the introduction of the Curiosity Channel in German-speaking Europe.”
Curiosity Stream
Curiosity Stream is a subscription streaming service that offers 1,800+ documentaries and series on science, space, technology, nature, history, health, and more. The service was created by the Discovery Channel founder, John Hendricks, in 2015.
CuriosityStream was founded by Discovery creator John Hendricks along with Stinchcomb. The service owes part of its growth to the deals they inked with cable operators. Instead of trying to grow the company on their own, CuriosityStream sold the service to pay-TV operators who then bundle it for their own video and internet customers.
The company went public on October 15, 2020, after reaching an agreement with Software Acquisition Group, Inc. and raised approximately $100 million in a follow-on offering completed in February 2021.
According to its year-end investor report, revenue for all of 2020 reached $39.6 million, up from $18.0 million in 2019. The company expects to generate a revenue of at least $71.0 million during 2021, or 80% year-over-year growth.
CuriosityStream currently offers two tiers: a Standard tier for $2.99 per month ($20 per year) that offers HD streaming or Premium for $9.99 per month ($70 per year) that offers 4K streaming of 80+ shows. A small number of their episodes are available ad-supported for free. CuriosityStream is compatible with Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, Android TV, Android Phone/Tablet, iPhone/iPad, Web Browsers, Google Chromecast, and Xbox.