HALIFAX — Kids’ and family entertainment company WildBrain yesterday released its fourth-quarter and year-end results for its 2022 fiscal year, reporting its overall revenue grew 12% to $507.2 million compared to $452.5 million in fiscal 2021.
The revenue increase reflects strong growth across WildBrain’s content production and distribution, WildBrain Spark and consumer products businesses, according to a press release announcing the results for the year ended June 30, 2022.
The company’s fourth-quarter 2022 revenue, however, was relatively flat at $112 million, compared with $112.6 million in Q4 2021.
WildBrain’s content production and distribution revenue for full-year 2022 increased 12% to $206.6 million, compared to $185.1 million in fiscal 2021. Fourth-quarter 2022 revenue grew 13% to $50.3 million, from $44.6 million in Q4 2021.
“These increases benefited from large distribution deals through the year, including with Amazon Prime, BBC, HBO Max and Hulu, as well as from a pipeline of premium productions, including Sonic Prime, Jonny JetBoy and a robust slate of new Peanuts content for Apple TV+,” the press release explains.
“In January 2022, we licensed the Degrassi library to HBO Max, which they have been streaming since March, and entered into a contract to produce a new series of Degrassi. Our production of the new series has been paused. We are currently engaged in constructive discussions with HBO Max,” the release adds.
WildBrain’s YouTube-based AVOD business WildBrain Spark saw its revenue increase 21% to $55.4 million in fiscal 2022, compared to $45.8 million in fiscal 2021, “driven by advertising revenue and increasing contribution from nascent revenue streams,” the release reads.
WildBrain Spark’s Q4 2022 revenue was $11.3 million, compared to $11.7 million in Q4 2021, “reflecting industry-wide softer advertising revenue in the current quarter, offset by growth in nascent revenue from direct-ad sales, paid media and digital production,” according to the release.
“Kids continued to be highly engaged on Spark, attracting 8.3 billion views across 50.5 billion minutes of videos watched on our network in Q4 2022, up 26% and 20% respectively compared with Q4 2021.”
Revenue in WildBrain’s consumer products business increased 16% to $203.6 million for the full 2022 fiscal year, up from $175.2 million in fiscal 2021, “due to the strength of the Peanuts franchise, supported by consistent output of new content and synergies of our vertically integrated licensing business,” the release says.
Consumer products revenue in Q4 2022 revenue was $41.8 million, compared with $44.2 million in Q4 2021, “driven by timing of certain Peanuts collections at retail occurring earlier than anticipated in the year.”
WildBrain also operates four linear TV channels – Family, Family Jr., Télémagino and WildBrain TV (formerly Family CHRGD). The company’s Canadian television broadcasting business saw its full-year 2022 revenue decrease 10% to $41.7 million, compared to $46.5 million in fiscal 2021, according to the company’s management discussion and analysis (MD&A) filed at SEDAR. For the fourth quarter of 2022, WildBrain’s television business experienced a revenue decrease of 29% to $8.6 million, compared to $12.1 million in Q4 2021.
The decreases in WildBrain’s Canadian television broadcasting segment reflect “a non-recurring rate adjustment, industry-wide softness in advertising revenue, and subscriber erosion in line with the broader linear TV market,” according to its MD&A.
WildBrain reported the company’s overall adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2022 increased 7% to $88.8 million, up from $83.1 million in fiscal 2021. Adjusted EBITDA for Q4 2022 was $11.4 million, compared to $19.2 million in Q4 2021.
For the full year, WildBrain’s net income grew to $5.6 million, compared to a net loss of $7.1 million in fiscal 2021. Net income for Q4 2022 was $1.1 million, down from net income of $11.4 million in Q4 2021.
“Over the last three years, we’ve deliberately built the resources and teams needed to create a unique, 360-degree platform for the end-to-end reactivation of beloved and evergreen entertainment brands from our deep vault of IP,” WildBrain CEO Eric Ellenbogen said in the company’s press release.
“This strategy was central to achieving growth in revenue and EBITDA for the second year running in Fiscal 2022. As the only independent kids’ and family entertainment company with a full suite of in-house capabilities spanning production, distribution and licensing, we hold a truly unique and valuable position in today’s evolving media landscape.
“Looking forward, we’ll continue to execute against our 360-degree strategy,” Ellenbogen continued. “We have an incredibly strong content pipeline, and we’re building earnings’ momentum as we launch more of our branded IP to market and line up more consumer products opportunities for incremental growth in the coming years. We’ll also continue targeting new partnerships and strategic acquisitions that will cement our position as one of the foremost producers of kids’ and family content in today’s market. With our strong management team and deep IP portfolio, we are well positioned to drive future growth.”
WildBrain’s CFO, Aaron Ames, added: “Our improving financial performance in Fiscal 2022 reflects initial contributions from the IP activations and large deals we’re doing. We’ll continue to build on the investments we’re making in the business to increase monetization of our assets and provide a solid foundation for sustainable growth. Looking to Fiscal 2023, we expect adjusted EBITDA between $95 million and $105 million.”
