Documentary-focused SVOD service CuriosityStream has signed a deal with the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC), opening the door for distribution deals with the organization’s 850-plus independent cable operator members.
The agreement announcement coincided with NCTC’s Winter Educational Conference taking place in San Antonio this week, and means NCTC members’ collective customer base of 9 million subscribers can access CuriosityStream’s more than 1,500 documentaries through their VOD service or streaming apps on various mobile and connected-TV platforms. Plans are also in the works to include the streaming app on certain operator set-top box platforms later this year, the company said.
“There is a lot of high-quality content out there that consumers may not know about, and this partnership enables our member operators the ability to surface some of that content in convenient ways, enhancing their customers’ overall experience,” John Childress, VP of Product Strategy and Management for NCTC, said in a statement.
Details weren’t given about pricing through the NCTC agreement, but CuriosityStream’s stand-alone OTT offering is available in three different service tiers that start at $2.99 per month for basic, $5.99 for HD-supported standard tier, and $11.99 per month for its premium tier, which offers access to the service’s 4K library.
CuriosityStream, founded by Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks, launched in March 2015 but has not released subscriber numbers. The new deal adds to CuriosityStream’s growing roster of distribution partners, which include Comcast and T-Mobile’s Layer3 TV, as well as Amazon Channels, Sling TV and VRV.
The agreement also builds on NCTC’s effort to help its members bring video offerings to their broadband customers, like a similar deals signed with fuboTV and PlayStation Vue.
“CuriosityStream is proud to partner with NCTC to give its members and their enormous customer base easy access to the world’s greatest collection of non-fiction programming that empowers viewers to satisfy their curiosity about their favorite subjects,” Clint Stinchcomb, chief distribution officer for CuriosityStream, commented.
