COS COB, Conn. – Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment Inc., which operates streaming advertising-supported video-on-demand networks, recently announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and the full year, which end Dec. 31, 2020.
“The fourth quarter capped off a very successful 2020 as we continued to deliver growth in original and exclusive content on Crackle Plus and expanded our distribution to drive viewership growth into the future,” said William J. Rouhana Jr., chairman and CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. “Our strong 2020 results set the stage for what is shaping up to be a year of transformational growth in 2021. Our distribution and production business grew over 200% year over year, and Crackle has seen strong viewership increases in the first quarter with continued increases in viewership of our original and exclusive content.”
Rouhana said the company is positioning itself as a pure-play AVOD network operator with a variety of content, differentiated production capabilities, a pipeline of original and exclusive content, and viewership that will likely continue to grow.
Fourth-quarter financial summary Gross revenue of $20.2 million, compared to $20 million in the third quarter of 2020 and $24.8 million a year ago.
Online networks, which include Crackle and Popcornflix, reported gross revenue of $10.8 million, up 35% from $8 million in the third quarter of 2020 and compared to $15.9 million a year ago. Gross revenue included intercompany revenue share payments of $1.7 million, $1.3 million and $1 million, respectively. On a comparable basis, after the deduction of $5.6 million of revenue from the since-shuttered Playstation Vue, the year-over-year gross revenue grew from $10.1 million to $10.8 million, an increase of 7%.
Distribution and production revenue of $11.1 million compared to $13.3 million in the third quarter of 2020, and $9.9 million in the year-ago period.