HALIFAX — Kids content maker and broadcaster WildBrain reported Tuesday its revenues decreased in the first quarter of its 2021 fiscal year, compared to a year ago, partly due to the impact of Covid-19 on global advertising at its WildBrain Spark AVOD business.
However, WildBrain Spark enjoyed increased viewership in its first quarter of the fiscal year, compared to the same quarter last year, and saw a sequential improvement in its revenue over the previous quarter.
For the three months ended September 30, 2020, WildBrain’s overall revenue totalled $95.5 million, which was down from $112.3 million reported in Q1 2020. The company’s net loss in Q1 2021 improved to $3.3 million, compared to a net loss of $16 million in the first quarter of 2020.
At its WildBrain Spark division, revenue was $8.9 million in Q1 2021, a 60% decrease from its Q1 2020 revenue of $22.1 million, but an improvement from the $6.5 million in revenue reported in the previous quarter. The company attributed the year-over-year quarterly decline in revenue to pressures on global advertising due to Covid-19 and policy changes on YouTube for “made for kids” content which have negatively impacted advertising sales at WildBrain Spark.
“Revenue (at WildBrain Spark) improved sequentially month-over-month as we moved through the quarter, reflecting an increase of 37% compared with $6.5 million in Q4 2020. This trend has continued in October as digital advertising begins to show improvement and we continue to implement initiatives to monetize the significant viewership consuming content on our AVOD network. WildBrain Spark has one of the largest and most engaged global audiences in the kids and family space with 62.4 billion minutes of videos watched this quarter, up 14% vs Q1 2020. On average, the duration of each view amounted to approximately six minutes, an increase of 27% from Q1 2020. Viewership remained strong at 10.7 billion views in Q1 2021,” says WildBrain’s press release announcing its Q1 2021 financial results.
Among the company’s recent business highlights, WildBrain announced an expanded partnership with Apple TV+ for Peanuts content, in October after the quarter ended.
“We kicked off fiscal 2021 with an expanded Apple TV+ partnership that will see a new generation of kids and families enjoying a full slate of new Peanuts originals plus the long-running classic specials on a leading global media platform,” said WildBrain CEO Eric Ellenbogen in the press release. “This multi-year, worldwide agreement is the largest production commitment in our company’s history. It aligns with our strategy of creating premium content in long-term deals that will meaningfully grow our earnings base. We have and will continue to line up a book of production business that you’ll see play out in our numbers in the coming quarters and years ahead. This Peanuts deal illustrates how we’re maximizing the profitability of our key IP across the value chain by leveraging new production to also secure high-value library sales and consumer products opportunities. As we close more content deals and switch on key brands, we’ll continue to build momentum, driving growth for years to come.
“In Q1, we delivered financial results that reflected strong production revenue and resilience in our consumer products and television businesses in the face of current macro-economic headwinds,” continued Ellenbogen. “We’re also encouraged by the sequential improvement in Q1 revenue at WildBrain Spark. We’re in a great position to benefit from the secular movement of advertising dollars to digital given our network scale, global reach, data insights and kid-safe, premium programming. We expect our direct advertising sales, as well as other initiatives designed to monetize the huge audiences on our AVOD network to help speed recovery and growth at WildBrain Spark as advertising demand returns.”
In Q1 2021, WildBrain revised its financial reporting to aggregate its production and distribution businesses in a single revenue line. The company’s content production and distribution revenue increased to $36.3 million in Q1 2021, compared to $35.1 million in Q1 2020, due to higher production revenue. WildBrain said the production revenue increase was driven by premium proprietary projects including new Peanuts originals such as The Snoopy Show, a number of family specials and a second season of Snoopy in Space, as well as new seasons of Johnny Test, Fireman Sam, Polly Pocket and Chip & Potato.
For more information about WildBrain’s Q1 2021 financial results, please click here.
