Hello, and welcome to WildBrain's fiscal 2022 Q4 and full year earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during that time, please press the star then one on your telephone keypad.
If you would like to withdraw from the queue, please press star two. I'd now like to turn the call over to Nancy Chan-Palmateer, Director, Investor Relations at WildBrain. You may begin the conference. Please go ahead.
Thank you everyone for joining us. Speaking on the call today are Eric Ellenbogen, our CEO, and Aaron Ames, our CFO. Also with us today and available on the Q&A are Josh Scherba, President, as well as Danielle Neath, our EVP of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer. I'm Kathleen Persaud, the new EVP of Investor Relations and our outgoing director of IR. Nancy is on as well. First, we have some standard cautionary statements.
The matter of discussion of this call includes forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws with respect to WildBrain, including but not limited to statements regarding investments inside the company, commercial arrangements of the company, and the business strategies and operational objectives and financial and operating performance of the company and the value of assets.
Such statements are based on factors and assumptions that management believes are reasonable and at the time were made and information is currently available. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.
Actual results or events in the future could materially differ adversely from those described in forward-looking statements as a result of important factors, including the risk factors set out in the company's most recent MD&A and annual information form. Please note that all currency numbers are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated.
For the question and answer session that follows, we ask that each analyst keep to one question and one follow-up. If you'd like to ask additional questions, please rejoin the queue. I'll now turn this call over to our CEO, Eric Ellenbogen.
Good morning. Thank you, Kathleen, and thank you all for joining us today. Fiscal 2022 was yet another successful year for WildBrain as we continue to execute on the strategy that we put in place starting in 2019. Our focus on the 360-degree platform for the end-to-end reactivation of beloved entertainment brands from our deep vault of IP led us to return to growth in 2021, and that trend has accelerated in 2022.
Over the last three years, we've delivered and built the resources and teams needed to create and integrate this unique 360-degree platform. I believe we are the only independent kids and family entertainment company with fully integrated suite of in-house capabilities that span production, distribution, digital media, and consumer products licensing.
Our global reach and our ability to leverage IP across this platform positions us as truly unique and valuable in today's media landscape. Aaron is gonna give you the details on our results, but I'd first like to take a few minutes regarding the highlights of the year. We generated growth in revenue and EBITDA for the second year running.
We have an incredibly strong content pipeline, an unparalleled executive team, and we're building earnings and growth momentum as we bring more and more of our branded IP to market.
We line up more consumer products opportunities in the coming years. In content production and distribution, we continue to reactivate treasured brands from our evergreen library. Just recently, we announced that Peacock has commissioned 52 brand-new 11-minute CG animated episodes of Caillou for the U.S. market.
They're picking up as well 5 new CG specials for the brand. This deal followed last year's announcement that Cartoon Network has picked up the classic Caillou library following our repatriation of U.S. rights for the brand from PBS. Since we repurchased the U.S. rights for Caillou, we've achieved more than a 50% return, underscoring the value of being an all-rights owner.
This is entirely consistent in the strategy for Caillou driven by our visibility and popularity of the brand on the YouTube Spark YouTube network. It also bears mentioning here that in Q4, our WildBrain Spark digital platform crossed the threshold of 1 trillion minutes of watch time since being unveiled in 2016. That's not a mistake. That's 1 trillion minutes with a T. To our knowledge, this puts Spark in an elite class of kids' content providers on YouTube.
Within WildBrain Spark, many of our brands are posting spectacular viewing numbers, but none more popular than our own Caillou, which has garnered over 75 billion minutes of watch time. In addition to streaming the classic Caillou series on WildBrain Spark, we've also been steadily releasing new short-form Caillou content.
Delivering the series to audiences worldwide on WildBrain Spark is driving deep engagement for Caillou. It's growing the audience and amplifying the brand. This popularity was a springboard for reactivating the brand and leveraging new and classic content across multiple platforms, including SVOD, AVOD, and linear. In the past, it's been widely misreported that Caillou has been canceled. But as you can see from the deals and the numbers, Caillou is stronger than ever.
I know you follow the SVOD space, and you've read about how streamers are refining their content plans and moving to premium programming, quality premium programming, all of which favors us. While this may lead to some short-term reduction in certain new commissions across the industry, we think we're extremely well-positioned in the changing environment.
Netflix strategy, in particular, has favored WildBrain, as evidenced by our ever-growing relationship. Demand remains extremely high for known kids' IP, and that drives subscribers. It keeps down churn.
We are the foremost independent owner and producer of that kind of content. We have an incredibly strong content pipeline, and as I said at the top of today's remarks, we're building earnings and momentum as we launch more and more of our branded IP.
On just Netflix as an example, our new Sonic Prime series, which is co-produced with SEGA, is set to launch in winter 2022. There's tremendous positive buzz for Sonic Prime, and we've already begun signing global toy and merchandise deals for the new series, with consumer products set to roll out in calendar 2023.
This builds on the already burgeoning Sonic franchise following the launch of enormously successful feature films from Paramount, which have grossed over $720 million worldwide to date, with a third film slated for release in 2024. Please bear in mind, this is not a work-for-hire project. We are full partners in the profits of Sonic Prime, as well as being additionally compensated as producers, distributors, and licensing agents on consumer products.
I should note as well, also on Netflix, which was announced just last week, a refreshed version of our 2015 Teletubbies series is launching this November. This new version has been updated for U.S. audiences with fresh elements, including new narration, music videos, and diverse Sun Babies, all reimagining another beloved brand from our library for today's generation.
It's also worth noting that on our own WildBrain Spark platform, Teletubbies has garnered over 44 billion minutes of watch time since just 2016. We're gonna be making additional exciting announcements about the Teletubbies franchise in the coming weeks, so please stay tuned. Also on Netflix was the announcement of season 4 of Chip and Potato, which will be launching this fall.
Chip and Potato is a terrific example of our brand capabilities extending from development and production through global distribution, consumer products licensing, and even new toys launching at retail this fall. Chip and Potato is really a great example of leveraging our 360-degree capabilities, which start with owned IP, producing creative content, engaging viewers, and finally moving to consumer products upside.
Last but certainly not least, Netflix is also the home to our original Strawberry Shortcake series, Berry in the Big City. As we continue to ramp up the launch or relaunch, I should say, of Strawberry Shortcake, we're looking forward to the exclusive launch on the platform next year of 4 new CG animated specials for the brand. In addition to Netflix, our Apple TV relationship remains stronger than ever.
Apple TV+ last month on the platform launched our latest Peanuts family special, Lucy's School, as well as the additional episodes of The Snoopy Show. In total now, there are four family specials on the platform, multiple seasons of two original Peanuts series, 48 series episodes of that. In addition, there are two original documentaries and 13 classic Peanuts specials.
Apple TV+ is the greatest home ever for Peanuts, and there's a lot more to come in that pipeline. We turn to consumer products. Within our wholly owned CPLG business, we secured the rights as the exclusive licensing agent for the Peanuts brand in Asia Pacific, which bolstered the recently announced expansion of our agency's business into that region. The deal consolidates CPLG's longstanding Peanuts licensing relationship across EMEA.
More recently, we added India, which has seen Peanuts featured in extensive cross-category promotions for apparel, toys, games, homewares, and more. Global annual consumer product sales for Peanuts now exceeds $2.5 billion at retail.
As we continue to roll out our new Peanuts content on Apple TV+ as well as additional platforms in China, we believe there's plenty of runway to continue to grow the brand. With that, I'll turn the call over to Aaron to review our details, excuse me, our results in detail.
Thanks, Eric. In fiscal 2022, we delivered a strong year, reflecting growth across all our content-driven businesses. Growth accelerated with revenue of CAD 507.2 million, reflecting a 12% increase over fiscal 2021, and EBITDA was CAD 88.8 million for growth of 7%.
Excluding one-time items in fiscal 2021, Adjusted EBITDA increased 23% versus the prior year. We also saw double-digit growth across content production and distribution, Spark and consumer products. Net income grew to CAD 5.6 million compared to a net loss of CAD 7.1 million in fiscal 2021, reflecting higher gross margins.
Fiscal 2022 free cash flow was negative CAD 17.4 million compared to positive free cash flow of CAD 31.5 million in fiscal 2021, reflecting higher accounts receivables associated with larger deals, growth initiatives and working capital timing.
One of the drivers in the working capital timing was a catch-up related to the Canadian production expenditure for our broadcast business, due in part to COVID-related live-action production delays.
We also had a step-up in the price of our live-action production, which requires short-term working capital, which we talked about last quarter. As we discussed in the past, we're in a growth phase, so in our short term, working capital needs us to execute on content deals and build receivables.
Turning to the quarter results, revenue was CAD 112 million, consistent with CAD 112.6 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income was CAD 1.1 million compared to net income of CAD 11.4 million in Q4 2021. Adjusted EBITDA was CAD 11.4 million compared with CAD 19.2 million in Q4 2021.
Free cash flow was CAD -4.7 million last quarter compared with positive free cash flow of CAD 13.9 million in Q4 2021. Looking forward to 2023, we expect revenue of approximately CAD 525 million-CAD 575 million. We expect A djusted EBITDA of approximately CAD 95 million-CAD 105 million.
Our guidance is based on our current pipeline and timing of revenue recognition. Before handing the call back to Eric, I'd like to take a moment to thank Nancy Chan-Palmateer for her service to the company as a director of investor relations over the last seven years. Nancy is leaving WildBrain at the end of this month. She's been a very valuable member of the team and will be missed. Thank you, Nancy, for your time.
I'd also like to welcome Kathleen Persaud, our new VP of IR, who has recently joined the company and will be managing investor relations going forward. I'll now turn the call back to Eric.
Thank you, Aaron. Looking ahead, we're gonna continue to focus on the execution of our integrated 360 degrees strategy. We're investing in the business to harness new opportunities for both our and partner IP.
We'll also continue targeting new partnerships and strategic acquisitions that will cement our position as the foremost independent producer of kids and family content in today's market. With our strong management team and our deep IP portfolio, we're extremely well-positioned to drive future growth.
Before we open up to questions, I'd just like to say on both a personal and professional note, how excited I am for the road ahead, having recently renewed my contract with the company for another three years. We've spent the past three years completely realigning our business. We've laid the foundations, and we're building for the future.
Actions which are now beginning to show considerable returns in our financials. We have an incredibly strong management team, I think one of the best in the entertainment industry, and I'm delighted to continue working with this talented group to propel WildBrain to its next stage of growth.
I'd like to send out my thanks to all of our dedicated, hardworking employees across the global WildBrain organization, without whom none of this would be possible, and also to my fellow board members for their continued support. It's really an exciting time for everyone at WildBrain as we look to the future, and I'm now happy to open up to questions from analysts.
Thank you. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw from the queue, please press star two. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Thank you for waiting. Your first question comes from David McFadgen from Cormark Securities. Please go ahead.
Oh, yeah. Hi. A couple of questions. First of all, I was just reading through the MD&A, and it was mentioned about Degrassi, and just wondering, can you give us an update on that? Because you said you're in negotiations with HBO Max, and production's been halted. Just wondering what's happening with the new shows there.
No other update, David. Good morning, other than we're in constructive discussions with them right now. You know, HBO has indicated, I think, widely, a change in strategy. What hasn't changed is the streaming of our deep library on HBO. As soon as we have more information regarding the Degrassi series, we'll definitely share it.
Okay. Do you expect them to continue with the series, or you just can't comment right now?
We really can't comment at the moment. You know, huge fan base, great success story around Degrassi, one of our great franchises. As soon as we have more news, we'll definitely share it.
Okay. Just on the TV revenue, I noticed there was a rate adjustment. I'm just wondering, does that impact the future revenue of that business? Is it gonna be a bit lower now or is that just a purely one-time item?
Let me give that to Aaron. He can speak to that point.
Yeah. Our TV business continues to perform and is a very good contributor for revenue and EBITDA, and we're continuing to manage the business efficiently through cost controls. This is absolutely a one-time item and, you know, we'll continue to manage it the way we have historically.
Okay. Then just on the free cash flow. This year the free cash flow is negative. I was just wondering what your thoughts are for fiscal 2023. Do you expect it to be positive? Then, sorry, just one last one after that. In the past, you gave an indication of leverage and where you thought that would go and it's decreased this year. I was just wondering what your thoughts are for leverage at the end of fiscal 2023.
I'll start with the latter one on leverage. You know, our leverage over the last couple of years has continued to decline, and we feel we'll be very comfortable with where our leverage is and that it will continue to decline over time. I think you mentioned about free cash flow. You know, obviously we're right now in growth mode. With all this activity that requires a short-term cash need.
You know, we've had, as you can see, I think approximately CAD 80 million increase in accounts receivable. That of course results in some negative cash flow. That reflects the higher volume and the increasing revenue that we are doing.
What's great is it gives us a lot of visibility on our future cash flow because we will collect those receivables and therefore it will generate cash flow going forward. Our future cash flow, you know, is positive and looks positive and we're excited to keep, you know, keep growing our business.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
We will now take our next question from Dan Kurnos from The Benchmark Company. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks. Good morning. Eric, first, let me just congratulate you on the contract renewal. I think you've done a terrific job turning the story around, even if the equity markets don't exactly recognize it yet. I'm looking forward to see what you come up with next. I have a couple two-part questions.
First, I can't help but notice that all of your new deals with Netflix seem to be coinciding with their brand new AVOD launch. Maybe I'm reading too much between the lines here, but it feels like others are going to need to come up to keep up with this content arms race, perhaps at maybe more thoughtful cost structures, Eric.
Other than, I don't know, Disney and maybe Paramount to an extent, although obviously Sonic Prime is doing really well there, it feels like there's a lot of green fields for your phone to keep ringing.
How are you thinking about the landscape? As the second part of that question, there's obviously this tack on CP opportunity which, you know, all of these guys clearly need to make some money given how much they're spending. How do we think about the CP upside opportunity relative to your guidance depending on sort of how integral you become to the ecosystem's, you know, monetization push?
Good morning, and thank you, Dan. First about the landscape. You know, again, widely reported, a lot of analysts taking a look at this. I think these are course corrections as each of the services refines and defines their identity and place in the competitive marketplace. What we aren't seeing is any erosion in spending.
I saw a number yesterday, actually, which I thought was surprising in a good way, the level of what Amazon is spending. The number was something on the order of $15 billion in content commitments. The great part for us, and, you know, Netflix is a prime example, is landed content counts.
To the best of my knowledge, I have not seen any announcements of shows that they've taken down or cut back that are, you know, global brands. I think it's the reason that relationship, you know, thrives and grows. I think the other services are sort of in the same place.
As to the AVOD piece, it's only what I've read that Netflix is not intending to put advertising against kids' content. That isn't of course the case in the other AVOD networks where we broadly distribute our content in our sort of always-on strategy with a lot of this. I mean, Strawberry Shortcake is out there on myriad networks, Teletubbies as well.
You know, the way we go about ubiquity with our content, which to your point is the consumer products driving. What I would just say in general is that it's the layering of each of these new content launches.
As you see these announcements, and I think you've picked up on this, what we're talking about is results that come in, you know, 2022, 2024, 2025 and beyond. Peanuts is just a fabulous example of that because you know, we probably have the most new content associated with that franchise, and we're seeing the results globally. We're seeing it come through in double-digit growth in consumer products. It just takes time, and getting that traction and again, distribution.
That's the great part about these platforms is most of them are global, and those that aren't are definitely making plans to do so. I would say that's kind of the way we look at it. It's just about those brands. The vault is deep. You know, not mentioned, in addition to Teletubbies, Yo Gabba Gabba! We're also super excited about Sonic Prime, which I mentioned in my talk.
I think that's just a monster property and has incredible global popularity. And as I noted, we are full partners in that business, so lots and lots of exciting developments here. Now the landscape has changed. I have to say, you know, we have not. We have yet to see the effect of that, where branded content is concerned. I really don't see a change. Pretty confident.
To your point on Netflix, Eric, I believe they also at one point said they'd never had an AVOD product either, so I'm not sure I'd exactly believe a lot of what they print in print around maybe monetizing kids content with advertising.
But no, I mean, I think quite the opposite. I think you're sort of in a, you know, an efficient cost production outlet for many of these guys looking for branded kids content. So I'd be surprised if there aren't more partnership or licensing deals in your future or near future. Aaron, maybe just on the guidance, and Eric, you can obviously feel free to chime in too.
I guess last time that we spoke, you know, I just wanna get a sense of, you know, obviously everybody's paying attention to what's going on in the macro, and obviously there's this sort of war between inflation and then the jobs market, not pointing to a recession. You know, CP could be impacted by macro.
Just curious how much conservatism you think is sort of baked into your guide just around sort of uncertainty, maybe offset by the increased visibility you have as you pointed out your accounts receivable, and obviously a lot of these licensing deals that you have in the pipeline.
Sure. Yeah. I'll take part of this and then Aaron can pick up on it. Just going back to the advertising note, I'm a product of Saturday morning TV, and I did not suffer any trauma as a result of all the cereal advertising I saw.
Look, I think in you know, as far as the macro environment, you know, we've taken you know, great caution in reflecting that and where we're going in the guidance and you know, very conservative about what's going on in the advertising space, et cetera. You know, I think we've been very cautious and obviously can see what's going on there.
You know, I have to say we're pretty you know agnostic about the macro environment. I know as an example, when we came through the COVID period, we did extremely well with consumer products. You know, we're deep in production and delivery on so many of these franchises. These things are you know so many of them kind of set in stone right now as we roll out the franchises. I'll let Aaron speak to any other aspects of that.
Yeah. Hi, Dan. What I would just add to what Eric said is that we've been adding and signing contracts and building our book of business and our pipeline with quality partners, and that's what gives us the confidence and visibility in our growth trajectory for our earnings from 2023 and in future years, because we've continued to layer on, you know, layer on more and more deals which build that pipeline.
As Eric said, it's all about the branded content, of which we have, you know, a tremendous amount of, and because of, you know. We did see also in that COVID time that people tend towards branded content. Growth will continue to scale as those new franchises and deals continue to flow through our financial statements. That's why we're confident.
Got it. If I may sneak in just one last one, you know, your EBITDA guidance is pretty much in line with, I think, where we were sort of in that range. I just want to get a sense, you know, from you, I guess, Eric, or maybe Aaron too, just how much of that is a choice at this point? Again, growth mode, right?
How much of that is you guys making some incremental investment decisions versus obviously you guys are clearly getting premiums, and I think we've all heard what the crazy CPMs are being asked for out there. You know, how much of that you could pass through versus how much that is a choice at this point?
Well, I mean.
Aaron, go ahead.
Our guidance is based on our latest projections and our current pipeline. Our plans are baked into our guidance at this point. We're planning to continue to invest in IP and build that IP and continue to grow our business in production and distribution and in consumer products going forward. That's baked into our guidance. Our plans are baked into our guidance.
Okay. I'll follow up a little bit more on. Thank you for all the color. I appreciate it. Thanks for bearing with me. It's gonna be very exciting or interesting 12, 18 months here.
As a reminder, please press star one. We'll pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. There are no further questions over the phone lines at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Nancy Chan-Palmateer.
Thank you, operator. Really thank you everyone for joining us today. We look forward to updating you on more exciting news in the next quarter.
This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.