CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service specializing in non-fiction and factual programming, said it’s recorded some impressive audience growth in the past month.
The service today said that it now has more than 13 million paid subscribers. That’s well ahead of the 10.5 million the company reported having in December.
CuriosityStream attributed its rapid growth to new distribution deals with a bundled partnership fee plan through which distributors can provide the CuriosityStream SVOD service to all basic customers or to any significant customer segment. The service’s affiliate partners who have already implemented the new "bundled" distribution plan include Altice USA and Suddenlink in the United States, Airtel in India, DStv's MultiChoice in Africa, StarHub in Singapore, Millicom across 9 countries in Latin America and Totalplay in Mexico.
RELATED: CuriosityStream now has more than 10.5M paid subscribers
To help drive continued growth and awareness for the service, CuriosityStream is launching a marketing campaign across TV and digital. The company said the campaign will focus on CuriosityStream’s programming including two new natural history shows, “Ant Mountain” and “Light on Earth.”
John Hendricks, founder and chairman of CuriosityStream, said his company is better positioned for success in a landscape where consumers are nearing the limit of streaming services they’re willing to pay for.
"In our opinion, consumer budgets for entertainment are limited, which will prevent the success of most 'niche' streaming services that only address a small sub-component of one of television's four major content categories: movies and scripted, factual, general entertainment, and sports,” said Hendricks in a statement. “For example, a movie streaming service devoted to just the 'sci-fi' genre will likely have much less success than a 'full menu' movie and entertainment service like Netflix, Disney+ or Peacock. Consumers are not likely to subscribe to multiple niche services within a large category, like factual, when there is one full and complete menu available that affordably delivers all the genres and niches.”
In addition to its bundled carriage plan for U.S. and international distributors, CuriosityStream continues to sell direct to consumers with monthly price plans ranging from $2.99 (HD streaming) to $9.99 (4K streaming), along with an annual HD subscription plan of $19.99.