WildBrain Posts Revenue Gains for Fiscal Q1 2020

WildBrain, recently rebranded from DHX Media, saw revenue increase 8 percent to C$112.3 million ($85 million) in its fiscal 2020 first-quarter results.

Eric Ellenbogen, WildBrain CEO, said: “In Q1 2020, we saw double-digit growth in viewership in our AVOD business, WildBrain Spark. We reached a new milestone with over four billion views a month. We also delivered Snoopy in Space, our first new original Peanuts content for Apple TV+ that debuted worldwide this month. The recently announced rights offering is an important vote of confidence from our shareholders—backstopped by our largest shareholder—that strengthens WildBrain’s financial position and is a further step towards long-term sustainable growth. In the six months since taking on my advisory position and two months now as CEO, I’ve become more energized and enthused about the untapped opportunities across our portfolio of assets. It will take time and investment to fully unlock this value, but I couldn’t be more optimistic about our future.”

The revenue gains were driven by higher revenues earned from both the non-WildBrain Spark distribution and WildBrain Spark AVOD businesses.

Distribution revenue (excluding WildBrain Spark) rose 78 percent to C$15.6 million, driven by a sizable library deal with CBS All Access.

WildBrain Spark revenue grew 37 percent to C$22.1 million. Views were up 66 percent to over 12.1 billion in Q1 2020. This equates to 56.3 billion minutes of videos watched on WildBrain Spark, up 43 percent from the same prior-year quarter.

The consumer products-owned business delivered C$40.1 million in revenue in Q1 2020, down just slightly from the C$40.7 million in Q1 2019.

In Q1 2020, the company began a management reorganization to streamline the organization and to integrate business units and reduce costs. As a result, one-time cash reorganization charges in the range of C$10 million to C$12 million are expected by the end of fiscal 2020, of which C$5.4 million was incurred in Q1 2020. Q1 2020 recorded a net loss of C$16 million, compared to a net loss of C$2.4 million in the same quarter last year—affected by one-time reorganization charges incurred in the quarter and a higher non-cash foreign exchange loss.

Aaron Ames, WildBrain CFO, added: “We continued to improve our cash generation in the quarter. We paid down C$7.6 million of debt in the quarter from excess cash flow and expect to make an additional C$50.0 million payment on the term loan upon closing of the rights offering. Our ability to eliminate the covenant step-downs on the term loan following this repayment will provide us with greater flexibility to invest in the long-term growth areas of our business.”