CuriosityStream, a streaming service focused on factual programming, is reinforcing its play to add more educational content to its premium subscription bundle.
On Monday the company announced adding Da Vinci Kids to its Smart Bundle subscription. Smart Bundle debuted in December and aggregated access to six streaming services in one for around $70 per year. The addition of Da Vinci Kids brings the tally of services in the Smart Bundle to seven, joining Curiosity Stream, wine-dedicated Somm TV, Tastemade, foreign criminal thriller-focused Topic, Nebula, and One Day University, which offers educational lectures.
Da Vinci Kids is an educational streaming and interactive learning platform, owned by edtech firm Macademia. The Da Vinci Kids brand, which features exclusive original shows and educational series, will join the Curiosity’s Smart Bundle later this summer.
“We are excited to welcome Da Vinci Kids into the best collection of mind-expanding subscription services in the world,” said Devin Emery, Curiosity’s chief strategy officer, in a statement. “From the Curiosity Kids collection, plus family-friendly viewing across all the bundled services and now the best-in-class programming from Da Vinci Kids, the Smart Bundle has more value and smart entertainment options for families than ever before.”
Curiosity positions its bundle of services as those with content “dedicated to entertainment that inspires learning, exploring, and expanding horizons.”
“Da Vinci Kids and Curiosity share a similar passion for sparking curiosity and exploring our world,” said Douglas Lloyd, Macademia co-founder and CEO, in a statement. “Our combined programming gives parents an enormous opportunity to further enhance how their children learn through programming the whole family can watch together.”
Looking to complement Curiosity’s factual-based content offerings, the streaming service has made moves to pull in more educational programming and interactivity. That includes acquiring One Day University in May 2021, which touts more than 600 talks and lectures from professors at 150 colleges and universities in the U.S.
During first quarter earnings, Curiosity CEO Clint Stinchcomb said that through the end of 2022, the company will have invested over $188 million on original and acquired content. It’s invested a further $15 million to $20 million in acquisitions such as One Day, Learn25, and partnerships like Spiegel and Nebula, which brought on content that Curiosity “have yet to fully cultivate.”
Experimenting with premium events
Curiosity continues to build the library of One Day, which originally started as a live event company. He said that since adding it to the Smart Bundle premium tier, Curiosity has seen some growth it’s excited about.
“We think there's a lot of value to unlock [with One Day],” Stinchcomb said in May. “What we’ve chosen to do is take the content, continue to build on the content and wrap it into our subscription service operations. And at the same time, we have been doing some premium course events that we’re certainly encouraged by the initial results.”
During the Needham Technology & Media Conference in May, Stinchcomb talked about putting tuck-in acquisitions to use such as One Day, noting that Curiosity is building out a “courses” section.
“We’ve dipped our toe in the water there with some acquisitions, have had a lot of consumption, kind of bullish on that,” Stinchcomb said.
He also cited experimentation with some premium virtual events, mostly through One Day University.
For example, a premium lecture live event by University of Texas professor Jeremi Suri, which also provided viewers with access to the first episode of “House of Morgan” on Curiosity - a series focused on similar topic as the talk that also features commentary from the professor and historian.
“These aren’t going to be huge drivers into our revenue line over the next 18 months, but long-term we know there’s opportunity, in conjunction with our core objectives,” Stinchcomb said during the Needham event in May.
On the DTC side of the business Stinchcomb also highlighted “low single digit churn” for the subscription streaming service, attributing it to a mix of pricing, uniqueness of the proposition, and a number of people subscribing to annual plans. As of the end of March, Curiosity Stream has had around 24 million subscribers – in addition to direct to consumer, Curiosity counts bulk subscriptions such as for businesses, education institutions and libraries, which get a discount on purchasing 10 or more subscriptions.
Pricing for a straight CuriosityStream subscription is as low as around $3 per month or $20 for the year, while its bundled premium offer aggregating services is around $10 per month or $70 per year.
As other streaming services raise prices, Stinchcomb indicated at the investor event that one could be coming for Curiosity, echoing similar comments made in March. “Without a doubt it’s a consideration, and something we’re looking at, and something we’ll do,” he said in May, adding he wasn’t prepared to say exactly when that would occur.
Curiosity reports second quarter earnings results August 15.