Q4 2021 Curiositystream Inc. Earnings Call
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the curiosity stream fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings call.
All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise.
After the Speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would.
Like to ask a question. During this time. Please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad.
If you would like to withdraw your question again press Star one. Thank you Denise Garcia Investor Relations you May begin your conference.
Thanks, Josh and welcome to curiosity streams discussion of its fourth quarter and full year 2021 financial results, leading the discussion today, our Finch call curiosity streams, Chief Executive Officer, and Jason Eustace Curiosity Street's Chief Financial Officer. Following management's prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions, but first.
I'll review the Safe Harbor statement.
During this call we may make statements related to our business that are forward looking statements under the federal Securities laws. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, but rather are subject to a variety of risks uncertainties and assumptions our actual results could differ materially from expectations reflected in any forward looking statements. Please be aware that any forward.
Looking statements reflect management's current views only and the company undertakes no obligation to revise or update these statements nor to make additional forward looking statements in the future for a discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our actual results. Please refer to our SEC filings available on the SEC website and on our inverse.
Stir relations website as well as the risks and other important factors discussed in today's press release.
Additional information will also be set forth in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. When filed in addition references will be made to non-GAAP financial financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP measures can be found on our website at investors got curious.
<unk> Dot com now I will turn the call over to Clint.
Thank you Denise and I'd like to thank everyone for joining our fourth quarter call.
For 2021 earnings call I'm delighted to have with US today, our CFO and general Counsel Teocalli, our CFO , Jason Eustace, and our chief product officer, and EVP of content strategy Devin Emory.
After my comments I'll turn the call over to Jason to review the financials at the close of Jason's remarks, we will open up the call for questions.
First I'm pleased to report another strong quarter with year over year revenue growth of 140%.
Approximately 23 million global subscribers.
International revenues grew at their highest rate on record as our investments paid off with wider audience reach.
Revenues also grew rapidly across every layer of our revenue stack from streaming to licensing to sponsorship.
Core DTC streaming business, we continued to grow our subscriber base, while maintaining an industry, leading low churn rate.
I'm also thrilled to announce that we delivered $71 3 million of revenue for the full year up 80% year over year and ahead of our $71 million target.
To put our full 2021 performance in perspective, our year over year revenue increase of $32 million exceeded our combined revenues for the first five years of our company's existence, an extraordinary team effort.
I'm often asked by other industry participants and observers how we've been able to grow our business so successfully.
I'd point to three primary factors.
First and foremost we've assembled a leading factual content library in the industry compelling titles across the science history technology nature Society and lifestyle categories.
No other streaming service offers the breadth and depth of factual content available on curiosity stream, including our wide array of kid friendly titles.
Second.
We've grown as a result of innovative leadership and execution. For example, we were the first streaming service of consequence to eliminate free trials and our recently introduced smart bundle has gained significant traction as we leverage bundle economics and an audience first approach.
Third.
We've built a unique multifaceted revenue stack with streaming at its core which has served us well over the past three years, including in 2021.
In 2021 underscores what makes us unique curie.
Curiosity is the entertainment brand for people, who want to know more our flagship subscription video on demand service available in more than 175 countries is the premier factual streaming destination worldwide. We continue to bring additional value to all our subscribers through award winning content and we're thrilled to be introducing more originals. In 2022, then and then.
The previous year.
Let me dive a bit deeper into the quarter.
Revenue growth in the fourth quarter was broad based with each of our major revenue lines growing rapidly year over year, we had another banner quarter in our licensing business, which is a testament to the global appeal of Curiosity Studios productions in.
And the factual entertainment category more broadly.
As a result international revenues grew at a record pace during the quarter.
In our direct to consumer streaming business net subscriber additions accelerated year over year with strong gross additions complemented by continued low single digit churn.
Fourth quarter <unk> benefited from the continued uptake of our smart bundle, which offers six streaming services for the incredibly low price of 69 99 per year.
Subscriber retention remains a great story for us and we continue to lead the streaming industry on this important metric.
And in an effort to build on the best quarter. We've had in sponsorship sales, we announced last week. The launch of our first fast channel curiosity, now, which will help enhance our advertising and brand partnership monetization and will also serve to promote to our DTC S. Five tiers.
Well legacy linear TV channels and other streaming services Chase the next big hit to retain their subscribers, we focus on delivering the unique content proposition and engaging user experience that makes our subscribers never want to leave.
With all the noise in the market in the media about the streaming wars. We continue to believe our unique factual streaming service is complementary to not competitive with general entertainment streaming services.
To be clear, we are playing on a different field.
During this year's planning process, we spent a great deal of time reviewing the current state of the streaming industry.
While this further review increased our confidence in the uniqueness of our value proposition.
It also underlines.
How significantly our pricing has diverged from the rest of the industry as.
As such we believe we are nearing the right time to better align the value we bring to our subscribers with the price of our subscription plans, including enhanced promotion of our six service premium tier, which enables us to offer even more quality content on our platforms.
Simply put even if our most popular annual pricing Permian were due to increased to $30 per year would still represent tremendous value.
While we have yet to finalize the exact magnitude or timing of any subscription pricing changes. We expect we expect them to result in a substantial increase to pro forma revenue EBITDA and cash flow overtime.
Turning to content, we continue to grow the number of titles under ownership in license on our platform as a factual streaming service, we were able to commission and acquire the visually stunning globally appealing and emotionally compelling series, our subscribers love without the multibillion dollar content spending or general entertainment streaming services.
We're able to do this while delivering high quality productions as evidenced by the 2022 slate of originals, we announced last month, our 'twenty 'twenty. Two original slate is the largest in our history and includes new brand defining titles showcasing compelling stories about everything from biomimicry asteroids true crime and exotic wildlife.
Rescue.
The greatest Scapes in history, accidental inventions, tycoons and shape the world and much more.
Our big year of original kicked off in January when we showcased an electric new talent and natural history filmmaking.
The biologists and adventure Patrick Irene.
And the six part series evolve or it takes viewers on a high octane global adventure to reveal the emerging world Biomimicry.
And how the genius of evolution could hold the key to some of our biggest problems.
We also premiered our eight part landmark original series tightens the rise of Wall Street.
Trailing deep dive into the power of the <unk> and the rivalries of American finance that fueled the growth of entire industries.
And certainly shaped the course of global events other.
Another groundbreaking premiers included the feature dark Red Elvis the Cold War Cowboy.
The probes the forgotten story of American pop icon, Dean Reed, who defected from the U S and rose to Superstardom and the Soviet Bloc before his mysterious death in East Berlin.
And the six part series inside the mind of a con artist and unprecedented production that literally attempts to psychoanalyse six of the most successful con artist of all time.
Leaving you wondering who you can really trust.
Also excited to be bringing back several fan favorites for second seasons, this year, including Doug to the rescue which features drone pilot DUC draw and as she explores new ways to use next gen drone technology not only for animal rescues after natural disasters, but also for conservation as he travels to Africa on a tracking mission.
Engineering, the future narrated by award winning actor, David I, Allo, which explores the cutting edge technologies that could revolutionize life as we know it.
And rescue chimpanzees of the Congo, with Jane Goodall, which takes viewers behind the scenes of a groundbreaking effort to attempt the most ambitious chimpanzee releases in history and returning for its fourth season. The acclaimed curiosity original Darkies series fourth and forever, which returns to the Heartlands of high school football and the iconic birthplace of Friday night.
<unk>.
Most recently, we began premiering secrets of the universe brand New eight part series, which serves as the Ultimate guide to the universe as told by the individuals behind the biggest missions and space exploration, including the James Webb telescope, and Nasa's Artemis Mega rocket.
Following curiosities Emmy nominated hit Secrets of the solar system. This landmark series tells powerful tales of discovery.
Illustrated with stunning space imagery and unseen archives.
And the race to image a black hole for the first time.
To searching for life on Mars.
And the original series Tycoons Unpacks the stories of the world's richest entrepreneurs names like Bezos gates and yes, kardashian. So in some ways yield just as much power as any elected leader.
Shifting gears.
Yes.
I'd like to provide an update on the exciting agreement, we announced last year with nebula. The worlds largest creator owned streaming and technology platform, whose creators collectively reached more than 130 million Youtube subscribers.
Since we announced the agreement, which included a significant minority equity investment in the company.
The disruptive nature of the creator economy has been on center stage.
Tech Giants like Facebook and Ticktock compete to be the platform of choice for this highly price segment.
<unk> continues to add high profile content creators and subscribers at a rapid clip and recently broke into the top 50 global streaming services by number of subscribers.
Currently over 450000 paying subscribers reinforcing its position as the go to platform for creators in the agitation space.
Due to our shared values and the complementary nature of our streaming services, where we're uniquely capable of making what we believe to have been an incredible well timed investment nebula last year.
Further.
We've built a relationship with nebula into a marketing and retention engine powered by Paris, social creative relationships that is unique in the streaming industry.
We couldnt be more excited to build on our partnership with <unk> in the years ahead and to offer our shareholders the opportunity to capitalize on the growth of the creator economy.
In summary.
We delivered a strong quarter and exceeded our ambitious full year revenue target for the second year in a row.
Content slate, we are premiering this year, the biggest and the best in history advances our mission to satisfy the curiosity of those who want to know more.
And we plan to evolve our pricing to better reflect the value we bring to our loyal subscribers.
Over the past 18 months, we have more than doubled the size of our content library through acquisitions.
Original content creation and.
In tuck in M&A.
We believe our content war chest today with well over 10000 title choices that includes over 5000 premium video selections.
Represents a robust critical mass for our streaming service.
So with this heavy lifting and library content expenditures largely behind US. We now look forward to increasing our focus on the achievement of positive cash flow in the future.
We plan to provide updates on this objective is our visibility into revenues for the second half of 2022 and beyond becomes clear.
I'd now want to personally thank each and every member of our incredibly talented team for keeping their shoulder to the wheel for.
For their dedication their creativity and for the focus they bring to work each and every day I would now like to turn the presentation over to our CFO , Jason used us for some financial highlights in 2022 guidance.
Thanks, Glenn I'm also excited to announce a strong close to the year with 100 over 140% year over year revenue growth during the fourth quarter full.
Full year revenue of $71 3 million exceeded the $71 million target, we established before entering the public markets, which puts us in elite and rare company.
Each of our major business lines grew rapidly during the fourth quarter with content licensing revenue, increasing more than five fold year over year to $10 million.
We expect content licensing revenue to moderate during the first quarter from this fourth quarter record level, which I'll describe in more detail during the guidance portion of my remarks, now, let's review our fourth quarter financials curiosity streams fourth quarter revenues grew 140% year over year to $27 3 million.
From $11 4 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Growth in direct revenues, which includes DTC partner direct and corporate and association was driven by a strong DTC subscriber growth modestly higher DTC, our flu and corporate and association growth related to our Red box partnership.
Distribution revenue growth was driven largely by our <unk> partnership.
Content licensing revenue growth was primarily driven by higher pre sales licensing revenue and finally sponsorship and advertising revenue grew rapidly year over year due to increased advertising within affiliate on a program on our platform excuse me.
Advertising and marketing expenses were $19 1 million compared with $13 3 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, as we discussed last quarter.
Allocated approximately $3 million of advertising and marketing expenses from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2021.
We continue to invest in advertising and marketing during the fourth quarter to drive direct to consumer subscriber growth.
Cost of revenue was $17 3 million or 63% of revenue compared to 41% of revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020.
While lower on a year over year basis gross margin exceeded our expectations due to favorable due to favorable revenue mix.
Total operating expenses were $27 8 million compared with $22 two in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Fourth quarter EBITDA loss was $17 8 million compared to an EBITDA loss of $15 five last year due to lower gross margins as well as higher advertising and marketing investments with G&A expenses, roughly flat on a year over year basis due to disciplined expense management.
I will now provide first half 2022 guidance to be clear.
The following estimates do not include any potential pricing adjustments.
Noted we wanted it to remain at solid on guidance in the future as we were for 2020 and for 2021 and to do so we will only give guidance looking forward for periods. When we have good visibility into our expected revenue and expense levels. As these performance expectations are adapted to new business initiatives and strategies.
And the overall market for streaming services for.
For the first half, we expect revenue will range between 36 and $40 million up 50% year over year at the midpoint.
We expect our EBITDA loss will range between a loss of 36 and a loss of $34 million. As a reminder, the fourth quarter has historically been our strongest revenue quarter of the year. We expect first quarter 2022 revenue to decline relative to the fourth quarter of 'twenty, one with approximately six to 7 million.
Of the of the sequential decline due to lower presale licensing revenue.
This decline is expected to be partially offset by continued growth in our direct to consumer business. We expect revenue to increase modestly between the first and second quarters of 2022.
Gross margin is expected to remain below historic levels during the first quarter due in part to significantly higher content cost amortization.
We expect first quarter operating expenses to decline roughly $2 million relative to the fourth quarter due to lower marketing expenses.
And now I'll turn it back over to Clint to open the line for questions.
Okay.
Please open the line.
At this time I would like to remind everyone in order to ask a question. Please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad.
Your first question comes from Peter Henderson with Bank of America. Your line is open.
Hi, guys. Thank you for taking my question. So I guess just curious on the pricing.
Plan and plans to increase later this year can you just sort of discuss the reasons for not implementing that now and sort of what steps you need to take.
Before you do it.
Implemented that price increase and I'm, just trying to get a better sense of the timing on that.
Okay.
So there's a lot to consider I mean, obviously, we think we have a lot of pricing power in light of our low churn rates.
At the same time, we want to make sure that we appropriately AB test we want to make sure that we take into consideration other.
Other objectives.
And initiatives that we have around that time so.
We have a lot to say about it Peter today because.
As you can imagine it's something that we're working really hard on.
For competitive reasons and other reasons, we want to keep that strategy and approach.
Close to the vest, but we did want to give some indication that we feel like we're nearing a time, where we need to better align the value with the price.
Great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Tom Forte with D. A Davidson your line is open.
Great. Thanks for taking my question. So I have two longer term questions and one shorter term one I'll go one question at a time through the first longer term question is how if at all is the vision of curiosity stream different today than it was one or two years ago.
Sure well I would say that our our vision and priorities today, Tom or to continue to grow subscribers and grow revenue, we want to continue to build our core streaming service.
ATC grows consistently every month.
We are focused on engagement increasing engagement through continued UI and UX improvements among other initiatives.
We still believe that we can grow bundled subscribers as the world hopefully opens up.
One thing is obviously is a little bit different is that we are now.
And are nearing a time to potentially re price our service.
And we have enhanced sponsorship growth, it's admittedly off a small base, but it will be.
Relatively meaningful this year and we just launched a SaaS channel to complement.
Our efforts here.
So if you go back two years I think our objectives and priorities are similar at the same time with the market being where it is we are taking a.
We're focused on.
Profitability and as I mentioned in the call.
We built this massive library I mean, I think one thing that changes we didn't think that we would.
Build it to this scope and scale as early as we have so.
In light of that we feel really good about our hand, we feel like we have got a robust critical mass we're going to bring.
Hundreds and hundreds of new titles to the service this year.
But with this heavy lifting and library content expenditures largely behind US we're now increasing our focus on the achievement of positive cash flow.
Alright excellent.
Longer term question.
How is the U S and how is the international that's about landscape different today than it was one or two years ago.
Yes, I would say.
As it relates to the U S.
<unk> of Est Vod content is still kind of in the early innings, but the window for any new full category that <unk> services with the exception of the Univision Televisa VIX plus is probably close for the foreseeable future.
So the U S. It's mature in the sense that the media companies of scale now offer streaming services two years ago that wasn't true.
But it's still relatively early in regard to consumer consumption and the opportunity to grow market share.
Now I think this dynamic will likely create consolidation among some of the largest players and within that the absorption of the independents with at least a few million subscribers, which in turn will result in something in the neighborhood of eight to 10 large video streaming services.
That offer the key genres of content I mean, we've seen that with HBO, Max and Warner movies Sports and General Entertainment factual.
With lots of pricing and packaging schemes.
I also think that we'll start to see the emergence of some sticky subscription bundles other than Amazon, where video is but one component of a broader consumer offering internationally. So obviously, it's not it's not quite as mature yet.
It's been difficult for the biggest U S players too.
Move aggressively internationally because of fractured rights issues, but I think.
As you look out into the future certainly Netflix.
Prime Warner Brothers Discovery Disney Paramount Apple.
There'll be large players and then.
And there'll be a handful of.
Specialized services focused on categories underneath them and then they will just be.
Hundreds and hundreds of ultra subscale services.
Alright, So Clinton, Jason you're going to have to take my apologies in advance for my sports reference.
Shorter term question.
And I have to think of closest to the pin was the way I was thinking about it so on your visit or from a visibility standpoint.
Whats inspiring you to give a six month outlook rather than a 12 months and do you feel any difference since it was my impression historically that.
And then you had a large percentage of subs.
Subscribe on an annual basis.
And that historically is what gave you longer term visibility. So maybe if you can include that in your comments I appreciate it I'll take it first and then I'll hand, it over to Jason So.
And as Jason mentioned first half growth.
We're up 50% year over year with with what Jason guided to but our guidance philosophy.
Philosophy is to do what we say, we're going to do and hit our targets like we did in 2020 in 2021, we want to remain solid on guidance in the future as we were for 2020 in 2021 and so to do so we're only giving.
Guidance for periods, where we have very clear visibility.
As we've shared in the past predicting the pacing of third party agreements can be challenging to do with great precision.
That said.
Okay.
The range of growth in <unk> hundred 22, as compared to H, one and hinge on a number of factors, including the timing of third party content licensing agreements timing of third party bundled agreements.
Timing and magnitude of potential price increase.
We're in several multimillion dollar third party conversations and negotiations that can drive.
Consider all up bowl upside. So there is a wide range of outcomes. We just want a guide as thoughtfully as possible Tom.
Okay.
Nothing Theres nothing were working on with third party partners that we haven't done in the past, it's really simply execution. We have unique premium factual content that can help a lot of different partners. We just want to make sure we get full and proper value for it whether that's through licensing bulk distribution for our brand partnership.
That will settle out Jason.
Okay.
Yes.
Your next question comes from the line of Darren <unk> with Roth Capital Partners. Your line is open.
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions just two if I may 1st can you speak to.
What your content spend is going to be 2022.
And then it looks like the sub number went up by about $3 million plus or minus.
I'm just kind of curious the mix.
Direct versus other channels.
Okay.
Yes, so as far as the content spend is concerned yeah, what I would go back to us.
We.
We really put our foot on the gas on content spending over the last year, a 12 to 18 months and we even we.
We haven't pulled forward some of our plant content spending for 'twenty two into 2021 and so we are.
We do feel really good about the library that we have today.
Again over 10000 title choices well over 5000 premium video selections, we think it is.
Critical mass for our streaming service.
And so with a lot of this heavy lifting behind us and with the.
With the Optionality that we have around our content spend.
I think that.
We're going to take an opportunity to certainly increase our focus on the achievement of positive cash flow.
And then your subs question again continued growth on the DTC I mean quarter over quarter, we continue to see that part of our business continuing over deliver.
But a majority of the subs that were added in fourth quarter were from the bundled distribution side.
And largely the international great.
Great if I could squeeze one more in I know youre not talking about what price increases might be but if you just assume that there was a $1 price increase on an annual plan I am curious to know how much of that will flow through to the bottom line hypothetically.
I would say almost a majority of that would flow through to the Bottomline Darrin, there's very little I mean, you pick up a little bit more.
Give up a little bit on your on your cost of revenue by the majority of that would flow through which is part of the driver to kind of increase that profitability of that segment and that as you know has the strongest <unk> within our revenue stacks that only makes it more.
A better piece for our revenue stack.
That's helpful. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Dan <unk> with Benchmark Company. Your line is open.
Great. Thanks.
<unk> client and a little bit for Jason here, just first on the on the bundle itself.
Smart bundle can you just talk about either the economics as it relates to some of them taking that versus someone taking just the traditional DTC.
And in terms of you guys growing that you've obviously added a lot to that partnerships et cetera.
Does that ultimately.
You're already at $59 99.
It's already a pretty high up the value chain are no change in terms of price point.
Could it grow from there to take on almost a more of a library.
Feature of its own.
Great question, Dan and since I have beside me.
Devin Emery, our chief product officer and.
Head of content strategy, who really Architected this six service.
Bundle I'm going to turn it over to him to talk about.
Better answer your questions.
The way that it works is that the smart bundles available through the premium tier of service on curiosity, if youre setting up the smart level youre signing up for a premium plan.
Assay stream, so as you're as you're saying that $69 99, a year and then youre getting access to all of the partner services. We have a tiered relationship. So we're paying those partners based on usage.
But regardless of the amount that we are making on our premium tier subscriber even after this fees are significantly higher than the standard plan.
Got it that's helpful and can you guys talk because obviously, there's been plenty in the news about the reopening et cetera, and what it means for.
Private time spent on Vod services is there anything you guys can talk to whether it's we're in with regards to that bundled plan or just with this the service itself is kind of the base service.
And Keith you guys around engagements with you mentioned.
Time spent.
Oh ours, just anything that would help us kind of understand.
<unk> low churn some of the stickiness in terms of programming which are offering.
Well, what I would say broadly Dennis is consumption is increasing.
That's due in large part to the fact that more people know about curiosity stream and.
We have been.
Populating the service with more and more content and great content I mean, the good thing is we're not hit reliant and so people subscribe and stay and.
Typically don't want to leave real early because because of the content and because of the experience that we think there's a number of improvements that we can make around the.
The platform that will enhance engagement, even more but as it relates to.
As it relates to specific metrics, but we're not there right now in terms of providing those.
Fair enough and Tahira first half guide just kind of housekeeping as your first half guidance assume any in person up for one day you are we not there yet either yes it doesn't.
It doesn't I would say that.
One day you.
<unk> features now and about 600 lectures and talks for America's greatest professors, it's a terrific service and as Devin says everyone remembers that one professor and and we have them all and so there are a lot of good things happening there on the virtual side, but as it relates to.
As it relates to in person events, that's not in the near term horizon.
Got it thanks, guys I appreciate the color.
Hugh.
Your next question comes from Laura Martin with Needham <unk> Company. Your line is open.
Hi, there a couple so could you remind us how the SaaS channel helps you guys strategically and since <unk> has been around since 2014 why now why is it now we're watching pass channels for the first time, yes, I mean, it's a great question, Laura and I would say that.
We've been we've been focused on building our direct service that remains our core focus and we will continue to do that.
We increased our number of brand partnerships last year end.
At certain partners ask us what we were doing in the SaaS space and it's not.
With the content that we have it's not a difficult business to get into.
It would be real clear as you know there is.
Hundreds of SaaS channels today.
Some are heavily consumed and some are not but it was not it was not a hard lift for us.
And we saw it.
And we see it going forward as a good opportunity to expand.
And extend those monetization opportunities for our brand partners and also to promote to our our direct service we want to.
We think we can reach new viewers there we got to give people a taste of curiosity streams not enough associate them, but it taste.
With the idea of getting them to subscribe to a full service.
And as the state on fast historically fast the a is AD advertising driven right are you going to do that all pro and you guys. Historically have been 100% subscription are you guys get a higher ASP.
What are you going to do that programmatically true magnate or somebody how are you going to generate the AD revenue.
Great question. So we have somebody on staff right now.
And we have been we've not talked a lot about it but we have been building a presence in front of the paywall.
Yes.
Devin who I referenced earlier, that's what he did he was the architect of that four Cheddar as an example, so.
It is not at the priority level of our of our direct service, but it is something that we are building and we believe that.
Gradually over time, it will deliver meaningful revenue for us and.
In concert with everything else that we're doing that.
That's fast.
Okay, great and the past four weeks have you guys seen any impact on your EBIT business, where the Russia, Ukraine hostility.
No.
Okay and then finally, just following up on the question about why first half guidance. Your answer to the question why is because you wanted to make sure you have got it.
And you could deliver what you promise you a week before Q1 and so what it seems safer to me if that was your logic to just give US Q1 guidance is only a week left in a subscription business.
Im a little I guess I just would like you to expand on again why did you give us first half guidance. It carefully because that has higher visibility in the first quarter alone, which is only has a weeks ago.
Laurence Jason So the philosophy is still consistent with that because we do have good visibility into the first half yes that we were just going to get the first quarter, but then at that point, where like it's a week out we have pretty good visibility and thats why the range on the revenue still 30 $36 million to $40 million and we feel confident that we're going to hit that number and the <unk>.
On the bottom so I think it's really the theme is that we have that we have the best confidence that we're going to hit those numbers and we want to kind of stay true to that and if we go outside of that and we kind of fall away from delivering the results that we have in the last couple of years.
Okay, great. Thanks, so much guys. Thank you. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Your line is open.
Okay. Thanks.
You talked about.
Sort of a lot of heavy lifting done in content creation and I'm just wondering how much new content, you feel you need to attract and retain viewers versus spending your efforts.
Customer acquisition.
How does that work out in terms whats your content in terms of annual series for example.
Charter series or whatever else.
Mix.
It would be more sustainable expense.
Yes, I think.
Yes, just come back to the point, Jim that we feel like.
We have this library that we didn't think we would have at this point in time and so.
Anybody new coming to the service today.
Going to see thousands of titles that they've probably never seen before.
With the content that we have not hit the air.
Two hundreds and hundreds of titles that we can premier this year and even after this year I mean, we're planning this year to.
We offer five to six new titles every week so.
And then some weeks even more than that so we feel good about what we have as far as the composition.
We want to build sustainable series, because thats the economics are better there and it also.
Creates an opportunity for people to.
Think about curiosity stream and look forward to coming back for the next season.
At the same time, we have a lot of.
We have a lot of.
Feature docs that was an area I think Devin identified when we first got here that we were underrepresented on so I think we've got a good mix. We're continually refining the mix, we had a healthy amount of programming dedicated to Russia, including the Red Elvis.
Feature Doc that I referenced in my comments, that's been performing very well lately. So we've got our finger on the pulse and we have the ability to create a lot of content in house.
We're quickly out of house, but.
We really like what we have and will be very measured in our content spending going forward.
Okay, and sort of on a related basis.
Given the intellectual nature of a lot of your content because you're trying to get second views from a lot of your users or.
Once it's done probably that buyback so I think that's a great point.
Factual content has a long long shelf life.
Not only does it have a long shelf life.
The history of Rome doesn't change it travels well around the world.
<unk>.
We're also not hit reliant so I think it's kind of the breadth and the depth and the.
Ever green value of it.
Really gives us the opportunity to use it reposition it in ways that others might not be able to and the other thing I'd add there Tim is that when you look at our amortization of those assets that actually triggers on the viewership of that and so the reason that is kind of.
A little bit of an accelerated but essentially a flat line.
That useful life is very long so we do see that reflected in the financial which is why we have a slightly accelerated and work on the front end, but for the most part it's a very consistent useful life.
One last one.
Along the lines of <unk>.
Cost relationship.
As you as you go.
Through the effort of trying to create more customer relationships could you talk about.
Your own feelings with.
Connected TV manufacturers the MPV.
<unk> and other distributor options.
How can you talk about the cost of these tie ups.
Yes.
Sorry, the cost of the what was the last part.
Yes, the cost of those sort of relationships hearings.
Jeremy.
Well with the.
Connected TV providers, we have.
We have agreements with.
Virtually all of them and.
Those agreements that we have with them are similar to what we would have with.
And Apple TV or Google play something like that so those are excellent economics for us there in regard to.
The advertising sponsorship opportunities that they provide.
It's part of our kind of distributed network, but.
We like those relationships will continue to grow those peak and the nice thing about the connected TV relationships is obviously somebody is consuming.
Curiosity, App and all of its glory, which is a much more elegant and.
A better experience than you might get on.
With another distributor who is running everything.
Through their system as far as the Mvpds are concerned.
<unk>.
We have we have a few deals with mvpds.
To the extent that we can get.
A fair value exchange.
We like working with them because they are <unk>.
Typically a little bit more innovative than some of the traditional providers.
Yes, there are no further questions. This does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for joining you may now disconnect.
Thank you.
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