Curiosity Stream, an on-demand streaming service specializing in documentary programming, intends to raise its subscription prices sometime this year.
Clint Stinchcomb, CEO of Curiosity Stream, said in a Q4 earnings call Wednesday the company has “yet to finalize the exact magnitude or timing of [its] planned subscription pricing change.”
Curiosity’s SVOD model, which is currently available in over 175 countries, offers both standard and premium pricing. The standard monthly plan costs $2.99 per month, while the standard annual plan is $19.99 per year. Premium plans, which allow 4K streaming, cost $9.99 monthly and $69.99 annually. The higher premium tier offers a bundle of six streaming services.
“We believe we are nearing the right time to better align the value we bring to our subscribers with the price of our subscription plan,” Stinchomb said. “Even if our most popular annual plan pricing were to increase to $30 per year, it would still represent tremendous value.”
Curiosity Stream expanded its original series catalog in January. New titles included “Evolve,” a six-part series about biomimicry, “Titans: The Rise of Wall Street,” a documentary on the history of the American finance industry and other series.
Curiosity is also delving into the realm of free ad-supported TV, with the debut of the Curiosity Now channel earlier this week. Curiosity Now will be available to stream on LG’s smart TVs.
Stinchomb said Curiosity made a “well-timed investment” in streaming platform Nebula last year. The partnership enabled the two companies to offer a bundled subscription to their respective catalogs. Nebula recently broke into the top 50 global streaming services by number of subscribers, he added.
Curiosity Stream’s subscriber count increased to 23 million in 2021, over double that of 2020. Yearly revenue amounted to $71.3 million, up from $36 million year-over-year. Stinchomb anticipates 2022 will also yield a positive cash flow for Curiosity Stream.
“The content slate we are premiering this year advances our mission to satisfy the curiosity of those who want to know more,” he said. “We believe our content war chest today with well over 10,000 title choices that includes over 5000 premium video selections represents a robust ‘critical-mass’ for our streaming service.”