Kartoon Studios confirmed that its streaming service business, which premiered in June 2020, has achieved record revenue, increased its paid subscribers, expanded its international market coverage, and reached break-even EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2024. In 2023, paid subscribers increased 19% over 2022. Importantly, free trials, a leading indicator for future growth, more than doubled in Q4 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Kartoon Studios' streaming business recently hit break-even for the latest quarter. In addition, the company has successfully reduced its customer acquisition costs by 50% from the first half to the second half of 2023.
Kartoon Studios' CEO Andy Heyward stated: "In three and a half years, the growth of the Kartoon Studios' streaming business in the U.S. and globally has been impressive. Even Netflix took many years to reach break-even. We challenged our leadership to learn from its practices and to surpass them. Not only have we already reached EBITDA break-even, but we are now experiencing solid growth, as we see consumers responding to the Kartoon Channel! 's brand of age-appropriate children's content and the easy-to-navigate interface."
Heyward continues: "We attribute the growth to the quality of the curated content, and most importantly to the leadership of the management of the channels, led domestically by Toon Media Networks' President Todd Steinman, and internationally by the President of Kartoon Channel! Paul Robinson is the former managing director of Disney Channel Worldwide. We have some of the brightest and most talented executives in the global content distribution and OTT/Streaming business. Combining expanding market reach, growing revenue, and quality of service based on our Apple app store user ratings, we believe our streaming services will be an important component of Kartoon Studios' growth strategy for years to come."
Todd Steinman, President of Toon Media Networks, who oversees the Company's Kartoon Channel!, Ameba, and Frederator Networks, stated: "We are humbled by the positive feedback our services are receiving in the market from both children and parents. Our subscriber growth and the significant increase in new trials best evidence this."
Paul Robinson, President of Kartoon Channel! & Head of International Distribution concluded: "We continue to expand our international footprint with the new Kartoon Channel! launches. We have ambitious plans for the first half of 2024, which include expansion into new territories that we anticipate would bring our reach to a combined population of over 1.8 billion people. The high-quality original productions, brand name titles, and movies appeal to parents, caregivers, and children across different continents and cultures, and we could not be more excited about the business's international growth."
Kartoon Channel! has reached nearly 100% penetration of U.S. television households and is available across a broad range of platforms. Internationally, Kartoon Channel! branded blocks are available daily across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Kartoon Channel! is currently available in Africa and Sub-Sahara Africa (StarTimes), India (Jio), Australia and New Zealand (Samsung TV Plus), Germany (Waipu), Philippines (Tap TV), Malaysia (Astro), Vietnam (BHD Cineplex), Indonesia (Linknet), United Arab Emirates (Etisalat), Mongolia (Mobinet), and Maldives (SSNet).