A Video Subscription Site Gets a New Life From Licensing Videos to AI

A streaming service called CuriosityStream, which offers documentaries on ancient Egypt, the Persian Gulf and other topics, was nearly delisted by the Nasdaq Stock Market three years ago. Squeezed by a post-pandemic glut of online streaming services, its revenue dove 27% in 2023 to a four-year-low. The service’s decision last fall to license thousands of hours of films—for which it held the rights—to companies training AI models has brought it back from the brink, though. 

Earlier this month, the company, which was started by Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks in 2015, reported record profits, driven by revenue from licensing documentaries to AI companies. Meta, Google, xAI, OpenAI and Anthropic have all licensed its data, according to a person close to the company.  

The stock, which closed Monday at $2.84, has recovered from a February 2024 low of 45 cents, though that is still far from its 2021 high of $24.

“We keep doing streaming but the growth has come from AI data licensing for the past two years and it’s accelerating,” said John Higgins, CuriosityStream’s vice president in charge of data partnerships.