Licensing, including AI data deals, brought in 57% of CuriosityStream's third-quarter revenue

CuriosityStream, the factual entertainment streaming company founded by Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks, now earns more from licensing its content and data than from subscriptions. In results released on November 11, 2026, licensing brought in $11.7 million, or 57% of revenue in the three months to September 30, up from 47% a year earlier. Subscriptions fell to 42% of revenue from 51%.

Total revenue rose 13% to $20.7 million. Licensing revenue grew 35%, while subscription revenue slipped to $8.7 million from $9.3 million, a 7% drop, according to the 10-Q.

What counts as licensing

The licensing line now mixes three kinds of deals, according to the company's 10-Q: traditional sales of library titles to other media companies, swaps of existing titles for new programming, which are booked as revenue at the value of what is received, and licenses of content and data to companies developing artificial intelligence, including large and small language models and physical AI applications.

In the third quarter, the company says, growth came from AI licensing and those barter swaps. Over nine months the picture differs: AI licensing revenue was lower than a year earlier, and growth came from traditional cash licensing and more barter. The nine-month figure includes $8.5 million recognized under a long-term content license with Curiosity Brands, the business that took over three brands CuriosityStream sold on June 30: Curiosity University, Curiosity Audio and Catholic Stream. The company does not give a dollar figure for AI licensing on its own.

Beyond its own library of 15,000 hours, CuriosityStream says it “owns, licenses or has access to” millions of hours of finished and raw video and audio, plus a library of more than 1,000 software code repositories, which it sublicenses to technology companies for training AI. Chief executive Clint Stinchcomb said that demand for “rights-controlled content and data” is growing across traditional media and AI.

The cost of AI revenue

That revenue is not free to earn. CuriosityStream pays its AI training content partners a percentage fee, and higher revenue-share payments on AI licensing pushed distribution costs up 50% to $4.6 million. Gross margin fell to 48.8% from 58.7% a year earlier.

Even so, lower marketing and administrative spending cut operating expenses by 25%, and the company swung to net income of $4.8 million from a $3.7 million loss. It raised its 2026 outlook to revenue of $79 million to $82 million and adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, of $20 million to $22 million, and declared a dividend of $0.085 a share payable on December 15.

Fewer subscribers, higher prices

CuriosityStream says its subscriber count fell, which it describes as a deliberate focus on more profitable subscribers. Price increases from March 2026 raised average revenue per paying subscriber, and it has consolidated subscription revenue from its German documentary channel business, the Spiegel Venture, since buying the remaining 68% on July 1. The service also launched on Prime Video in Canada, its fifth English-speaking market on that platform.