At its investor day Wednesday, Discovery claimed its new direct-to-consumer service Discovery Plus would be the only SVOD service focus on non-fiction programming, but analyst Todd Juenger of Sanford C. Bernstein noted that the programmer may have overlooked something--and someone--quite significant.

“They are forgetting CuriosityStream,” Juenger said in a research note.

CuriosityStream was started by someone Discovery and its CEO David Zaslav ought to be familiar with: Discovery founder John Hendricks. 

Related: Discovery Plus to Explore Challenging SVOD Biz with Lofty 70 Million Subscriber Goal

“Listening to Discovery be completely dismissive of CuriosityStream, by omission, we couldn't help but remember the infamous words of the CEO of Time Warner Inc., who once likened Netflix to the Albanian Army ('Is the Albanian Army going to take over the world?')," Juenger said.

In a research note late Wednesday, Juenger noted that many current streaming services provide plenty of non-fiction programming. He ticked off Netflix with Tiger King. Disney Plus with its National Geographic brand. Apple Plus has “a relatively sizable amount of factual programming,” he said, adding “and last but not least there is YouTube, the #1 video service in the world.” 

With that much non-scripted content already available, “how many consumers care so much about unscripted/factual that they will sign up to an additional, incremental SVOD service specifically for that purpose,” Juenger asked.

In its presentation, Discovery, unlike many other media companies that have held investor days to roll out their streaming plans, didn’t venture an estimate of how many subscribers Discovery Plus would have even as part of a five-year plan. Or when it might break even.

When Disney provided those numbers, it’s stock jumped. 

“Having not provided such guidance, we don't expect the market will capitalize Discovery's DTC similarly,” Juenger said. “If management doesn't have enough confidence to provide a guidance range, then why should the public markets choose their own subs/arpu/revenue expectation and price it into the stock, today? “

Discovery shares did in fact rise 2.51% on Wednesday.

Documentary-focused subscription streaming service CuriosityStream is set to go public.

The SVOD company, created in 2015 by Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks and now boasting about 13 million subscribers across 175 countries, is set to merge with “special purpose acquisition company” Software Acquisition Group, which already raised about $150 million with an IPO on the Nasdaq in November.

Visit Next TV to read more stories like this one. 

Hendricks is a virtuoso builder of media businesses, and he has showcased it once again, elegantly, with this deal.

A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is a company with no commercial operations that is formed strictly to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) for the purpose of acquiring an existing company, per Investopedia.

Also read: CuriosityStream’s Stinchcomb: ‘Netflix Has Escape Velocity and Will Continue to Grow

So, in practical effect, CuriosityStream is being acquired for $331 million by a company that’s already public, and which makes nothing. The merged company, which will be branded as CuriosityStream, will have an equity value of around $512 million. It’ll have $180 million in cash on hand, and no debt, according to a statement released by the two parties.

CuriosityStream’s existing investors, Hendricks, Blum Capital Ventures and TimesSquare Capital Management, will contribute all of their equity into the combined company

Hendricks will remain chairman of the board. Clint Stinchcomb will remain president and CEO. The company will trade as “CURI” on the Nasdaq.

The deal is detailed in the statement.

“CuriosityStream has the unique advantage of being a ‘pure play’ streaming media service that is not burdened with legacy linear TV assets in cable and broadcasting,” said Hendricks, founder and chairman of CuriosityStream. “We are excited to now have access to the public capital markets to support our growth plans and to over-deliver on our mission to provide content that informs, enchants and inspires.”

Documentary-focused subscription streaming service CuriosityStream is set to go public.

The SVOD company, created in 2015 by Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks and now boasting about 13 million subscribers across 175 countries, is set to merge with “special purpose acquisition company” Software Acquisition Group, which already raised about $150 million with an IPO on the Nasdaq in November. 

Hendricks is a virtuoso builder of media businesses. And he has showcased it once again, elegantly, with this deal. 

A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is a company with no commercial operations that is formed strictly to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) for the purpose of acquiring an existing company, per Investopedia.

Also read: CuriosityStream’s Stinchcomb: ‘Netflix Has Escape Velocity and Will Continue to Grow

So, in practical effect, CuriosityStream is being acquired for $331 million by a company that’s already public, and which makes nothing. The merged company, which will be branded as CuriosityStream, will have an equity value of around $512 million. It’ll have $180 million in cash on hand, and no debt, according to a statement released by the two parties. 

CuriosityStream’s existing investors, Hendricks, Blum Capital Ventures and TimesSquare Capital Management, will contribute all of their equity into the combined company

Hendricks will remain chairman of the board. Clint Stinchcomb will remain president and CEO. The company will trade as “CURI” on the Nasdaq. 

The deal is detailed in the statement. 

“CuriosityStream has the unique advantage of being a ‘pure play’ streaming media service that is not burdened with legacy linear TV assets in cable and broadcasting,” said Hendricks, founder and chairman of CuriosityStream. “We are excited to now have access to the public capital markets to support our growth plans and to over-deliver on our mission to provide content that informs, enchants and inspires.”

CuriosityStream, the factual streaming service launched by Discovery founder John Hendricks, has raised about $140 million in a private placement offering to fund its next stage of growth.

Hendricks launched CuriosityStream in 2015. The service offers fact-based programming, documentaries and series for a monthly fee and is available on most devices and platforms worldwide, available to watch anytime, anywhere, without commercial interruption.

“This is an important step in a significant effort to connect CuriosityStream with viewers around the world,” said CuriosityStream CEO Clint Stinchcomb in a press release. “Hundreds of millions of people globally are migrating to on demand television and entertainment. We are in the middle of a seismic shift in consumer behavior, and this funding will accelerate the dynamic growth we achieved in the last 12 months.”

Related: TCA2019: John Hendricks Predicts SVOD Streaming Wars This Year 

Stifel Investment Banking acted as sole placement agent. New investors include Blum Capital Ventures and TimesSquare Capital Management.

CuriosityStream said it will use the proceeds of the offering, in addition to its other revenue sources, to boost spending on factual programming, drive technological advancement in content discovery, and to market the service globally.

Related: CuriosityStream Goes Back to the Future 

The service reached 1 million paying subscribers at the end of 2018, and now has library content with more than 2,000 titles. By the end of this year, CuriosityStream expects its viewers will be able to choose from more than 3,000 titles including more exclusive originals available in 4K.

Programming legend John Hendricks’ CuriosityStream has landed its second major sponsor with Toyota signing on as the exclusive automotive partner for the global streaming service.

Toyota joins Sprint as CuriosityStream’s first two premier sponsors, category-exclusive relationships that span creative, co-promotion and distribution collaborations to engage consumers with the service.

The Toyota Theater will launch on CuriosityStream in September with CuriosityStream’s Dream the Future narrated by Sigourney Weaver as the lead title.

“We have been so delighted to work with Toyota and its talented agencies, Saatchi and Saatchi and Zenith Media, in crafting a partnership plan that will enable Toyota to effectively communicate with today’s most sought-after viewers who are eager to learn more about breakthrough advancements in science and technology that will positively impact our future,” said CuriosityStream chief advisor for sponsor partnerships Joe Abruzzese in a statement.

The announcements of four more exclusive sponsors in categories such as insurance, banking and finance, aerospace, and pharmaceuticals are expected before the end of the year.   Each of those six sponsors will have a branded theater on CuriosityStream, offering original documentaries as well as branded sponsor programming. All 1,800-plus titles are streamed without commercial interruption and begin with a pre-roll sponsor message before each show. 

Toyota, the largest producer of electrified vehicles with nearly 11.5 million hybrids sold worldwide, will leverage the Toyota Theater on CuriosityStream to feature technology and science series programming, while also highlighting its portfolio of advanced-technology vehicles like the Prius, Mirai, and Prius Prime.

“Through our partnership with CuriosityStream and the Toyota Theater, we’re excited to engage with an audience of science and technology enthusiasts,” said Toyota Motor North America vice president, integrated marketing Vinay Shahani in a statement. “As Toyota shifts from a traditional automotive manufacturer to a mobility company, our culture of innovation has never been more critical, particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, sustainability, and safety. CuriosityStream gives us a vital platform for sharing some of the most cutting-edge innovations coming from Toyota today.”

Curiosity Stream launched the new sponsor-supported platform on Aug. 2, with the Sprint Theater as the first of six anticipated brand theaters. CuriosityStream also announced distribution agreements with over 30 cable and MVPDs which collectively serve over 100 million global customers.

Related: Hendricks Sets Launch of Multi-Screen SVOD Service 

“We could not be more pleased that Toyota has joined us as our exclusive automotive partner. Given Toyota’s global leadership in technology innovation, we think they are the perfect ally in presenting incredible science, engineering, and technology content within the new Toyota Theater that will go live within 60 days on CuriosityStream,” Hendricks said in a statement.

CuriosityStream founder John Hendricks believes he has cracked the code for OTT services, adding a new twist to a practice established during the first Golden Age of Television – sponsored programming – but using those sponsors to help promote the service and drive viewers and subscribers through traditional pay TV and online media.

Hendricks, who founded Discovery Communications in the 1980s, is no stranger to innovation. But with CuriosityStream, the educational OTT service he founded three years ago  – he believes he finally has the one-two punch that will help usher in a new era of streaming content.

“The big news for us is this other model, bringing sponsors who are desperate to get at the missing users who are abandoning linear,” Hendricks said. “When [consumers] are watching Netflix or Amazon Prime, they’re outside the advertising universe, they [advertisers] can’t reach them. What we’ve tried to do is develop a way that the advertisers can work through us to get to those missing viewers, who are some of the most valuable viewers on television.”

SVOD is attractive to advertisers because most young, affluent viewers are watching less and less linear TV.

“If you’re a [car maker], you’ve got to get to them,” Hendricks said. “And your spots just aren’t reaching them on cable.”

CuriosityStream under the impetus of former CBS and Discovery ad sales chief Joe Abbruzzese, who signed on as a special adviser to the service in April, is securing six major sponsors for its programming – Sprint is first out of the blocks – for its factual documentary/science/nature/innovation programming service. 

Other advertisers in the automotive, banking and financial services, insurance, energy, aerospace and pharmaceuticals are expected to follow before the end of the year. 

According to Hendricks, each advertiser will be the exclusive advertiser for their respective genre channel. Aside from 15-second spots before each program, these advertisers also will promote CuriosityStream through their own advertising on their own websites.

Sprint Theater will debut on Aug.2 and will feature the original CuriosityStream series DIGITS.

“What we’ve been working hard on for the last six to eight months, is how would you integrate sponsored revenue in the world of streaming on demand, where the consumer doesn’t want to watch commercials?” Hendricks said in an interview. “Joe [Abbruzzese] and I made the rounds, at the top levels of agencies, and also going to clients. They’re all just ready for it, because they know they missed the wagon on Netflix – you can’t buy a sponsorship on Netflix. They know they missed the wagon on Netflix.”

To help drive interest in the channel, CuriosityStream is offering a free version of the service on the web – Curiosity Showcase – that hopefully will whet viewers’ appetites with 18 CuriosityStream titles and sponsored content.

Hendricks’ streaming service is already available as an SVOD product on several traditional pay TV offerings from Comcast, Cox Communications, Dish Network and less traditional outlets like Sling TV, StarHub in Singapore, Amazon’s Prime Video Channels, Sprint Mobile TV, Apple TV, Samsung, Roku, LG, Sony, VIZIO, VRV, YouTube TV and others. The service claims that more than 9 million unique visitors have sampled its online platform and over 900,000 global consumers are now paying subscribers either directly or through bundled packages offered by distributors.

Streaming TV, in Hendricks’ view, is the third revolution of television – first was broadcast in the 1940s and 1950s, followed by cable television in the 70s and 80s. The third wave, according to a white paper (Undeniable and Unstoppable) Hendricks wrote on the subject, began in 2007, when Netflix introduced true streaming SVOD. Now Netflix has 120 million global subscribers – 56 million in the U.S. – and according to some analysts could reach 300 million global customers in the next eight years.

Hendricks sees CuriosityStream’s new sponsor plan as the future of streaming TV, and with his track record, it would be wise to listen. Each show will be preceded by a “non-skippable” 15-second pre-roll featuring sponsor messages, but the core content will be without commercial interruption.

CuriosityStream plans an ad blitz to promote the service – it is using the same ad agency as its exclusive sponsors to get the word out through broadcast, cable and digital media.

“Cable news networks work very well for us,” Hendricks said of potential advertising outlets. “We’re using the promotional power of or sponsors.”

This new relationship also will allow Hendricks and CuriosityStream to lower consumer prices. The SVOD service is currently available for $5.99 per month but Hendricks said the plan is to reduce the cost to the consumer to $19.99 for a yearly subscription or for $2.99 per month.

“Our streaming service which offers premium programs across the entire category of factual entertainment is riding the unstoppable wave of Internet-delivered SVOD television that is sweeping the planet,” said CuriosityStream president Clint Stinchcomb in a statement. “Driven by the undeniable, widespread, and accelerated consumer demand for high-quality content that can be enjoyed at any time and without commercial interruptions, CuriosityStream is taking new steps today that are designed to take full advantage of this third revolution of television that offers control to consumers far beyond what was available in the previous broadcast and cable television eras.”

Nearly two years after its beta debut, CuriosityStream is gearing up to hit the accelerator with a multi-faceted, global ad campaign that will aim to scale up subscribers to an SVOD service that’s focused on fact-based programming spanning areas such as science, tech, history and nature.

Following its launch in March 2015, CuriosityStream, has been conducting some “modest” digital advertising and relying on word of mouth, but is now ready to take its promotional activities to that next level as the service is now armed with a growing library of licensed and original programming and an OTT platform to underpin it, John Hendricks, cable programming pioneer and CuriosityStream’s founder, said.  

RELATED: SVOD Surge (subscription required)

CuriosityStream recently launched its first print ad campaign in publications such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, with the theme that the SVOD service is “the antidote to ‘reality’ TV.” It’s also testing some TV ads on CNN, Fox News, and Bloomberg TV around the theme, "Long Live the Curious."

Watch a 60-second version of it below:

“Television [advertising] will be the real way we’ll scale up,” he said, referring to some initial ads that use the tagline, “Long Live The Curious.” He said the ads being shown on those networks have gotten a good response early on, as CuriosityStream’s programming tends to appeal to “news junkies.”

CuriosityStream will do more testing before it shifts to a larger, global ad campaign.

CuriosityStream has not announced current subscriber figures (notably, 34% of them are millennials), but Hendricks said the goal is to finish 2017 with “close to 1 million” subs.  

And given the global reach that CuriosityStream has and the service’s expected growth rate, Hendricks, who founded Discovery Communications, believes it will have somewhere between 10 million to 20 million subscribers, and possibly more, within about ten years.

Hendricks likewise is confident that consumers are thirsting for an ad-free SVOD service full of documentaries and other factual content that they can’t get from traditional cable channels that claim to be focused on those genres, but have increasingly steered the bulk of their programming toward reality TV shows and series.

“It’s saturating the dial,” he said of reality TV, noting that “there’s a real void in the marketplace” for the fact-based content that his service provides.

Paired with the greater emphasis on promotion and advertising, CuriosityStream will also use a growing library of exclusive content (almost 250 titles so far) and its broad reach (almost 200 countries) to boost its subscriber base, borrowing from a game plan that has proved successful for Netflix and Amazon Prime.

RELATED: CuriosityStream Broadens Its Horizons

More detail on CuriosityStream’s subscriber strategy, an update on its distribution discussions with cable operators and other MVPDs, and an update on its pursuit of new platforms, such as virtual reality, will be featured in the Next TV section of the Feb. 20 edition of Broadcasting & Cable.

The tectonic plates of the TV world are shifting and few can feel it like John Hendricks.

Hendricks, the cable pioneer who founded Discovery Communications and turned it into a wildly successful video empire worth $17.5 billion, has broken ranks with the company he started to make a new bet on the streaming world: a multiscreen, over-the-top subscription service called CuriosityStream, which launches this Wednesday (March 18).

Billed as the “world’s first on-demand, ad-free content streaming service delivering premium factual content in the areas of science, technology, civilization, and the human spirit,” CuriosityStream will market a handful of tiers based on the quality of the video resolution — $2.99 per month for standard definition; $3.99 per month for 720p HD; $5.99 for 1080 HD; and $9.99 per month for 4K. CuriosityStream will start off with a library of more than 800 titles, and feature original content from such partners as the BBC, NHK, ZED, Terra Noa and Flame Distribution.

“We kind of root for Netflix the way I used to root for HBO, because HBO was really good for cable,” Hendricks said. “We’re hopeful of reaching people who have a streaming connection one way or another.”

Hendricks, who retired as Discovery’s chairman last May, no longer has to fret about maintaining a legacy business while also trying to solve the OTT riddle. He’s now free to go full-bore with a direct-to-consumer service.

TAKING THE ‘NEXT STEP’

“My interest moving forward is trying to develop for this next big, evolutionary step in television,” he said. “It was hard to do it with one foot in the cable world.”

In many ways, CuriosityStream is the embodiment of Hendricks’s long-held view that television would eventually shift to an on-demand model — something he used to refer to as “file-serve television.”

Hendricks tested the idea in the early 1990s with Your Choice TV, a “near” video-on-demand service for movies and hit TV shows like 60 Minutes, Saturday Night Live and Seinfeld. The service, which relied on cable systems having the required channel space to devote to the offering, was tested in about 20,000 homes in eight markets. In addition to selling titles for $1, Your Choice TV also kicked the tires on an $8-per-month subscription plan.

“We saw the future,” Hendricks recalled. “It was amazing. The people loved it in those markets.”

While the infrastructure for a scalable video-on-demand product was still in development at the time, the business side of the equation also needed solving. Networks were happy to experiment with Your Choice TV, Hendricks said, but they also feared what it might do to their existing linear TV business.

“The rights situation was just too difficult to handle at the time,” he said. “Networks were afraid of it — what if people lost the urgency to show up at 8 o’clock on Sunday night to watch 60 Minutes?”

Hendricks took another big lesson away from the experience. “In the end, I learned that it’s very difficult to launch a new platform when you have entrenched business interests,” he said. “If you’re entrenched in broadcasting, it’s hard to think about devoting the time and energy and the distraction of threatening your legacy business by starting cable channels.”

And, until recently, broadcasters and cable programmers have been reluctant to launch direct-to-consumer OTT plays for similar reasons — fears such moves could backfire and damage a business that has flourished on the dual-revenue stream of advertising dollars and affiliate fees.

But attitudes have changed dramatically as the traditional pay TV business is assaulted by a surge of online video competition, led by new standalone services such as HBO Now. MVPDs are staring down such rivals as subscription VOD services and a new class of “virtual” multichannel video programming distributors, while also facing a small-but-growing cord-cutting movement. The bottom hasn’t fallen out of the pay TV market, but cracks are forming in the foundation.

The U.S. pay TV universe actually added customers (101,000) in the fourth quarter of 2014, but that growth didn’t keep pace with the rate of new household formation, according to a report from MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett, indicating that cord-cutting (and the number of “cord-nevers” who’ve avoided traditional pay TV service) “appears to have markedly increased.”

“On the surface, all is calm,” Moffett wrote, adding that, on a trailing 12-month basis, it appears that 1.4 million homes have cut (or never had) the cord — the highest total during such a span. On a cumulative basis, since the first traces of cord-cutting surfaced in 2010, 3.8 million would-be pay TV homes now fit into this category, he added.

Indicators are everywhere. A recent Horowitz Research survey of 2,000 multiplatform viewers found that 20% of respondents who currently have multichannel services said they are likely to cut the cord — more evidence that a segment of consumers won’t be sticking with their current distributors.

These findings have helped to make the case for programmers and broadcasters — from premium services like HBO and broadcasters such as CBS — to pursue or launch direct-to-consumer offerings that replicate services via broadband, or provide a slimmed-down, targeted subscription-based OTT offering. (For more, see table and Platforms.)

And analysts see more of this on the horizon, making it likely that 2015 will be remembered as a watershed year for OTT.

“The writing’s on the wall,” Colin Dixon, chief analyst and founder of nScreenMedia, said. “Kids content is one of the areas that is feeling the push more strongly than other content types at the moment,” he added, referencing Nickelodeon’s launch of the Noggin OTT SVOD service, the recent debut of a kids-focused app from YouTube, and Netflix’s long-standing kids-optimized interface.

“Kids just take to [OTT] like a duck to water,” Dixon said. “Now the pressure for services like HBO and Showtime to get online is huge now.”

Brett Sappington, director of research at Parks Associates, said he’s tracking between 60 and 70 different OTT services that exist today that will fit in as consumers continue to show a willingness to self-aggregate video. Content providers, he said, are pushing ahead because they “don’t want to be the last one to the party, or not be there at all when things start to pop.”

And broadcasters and cable nets are pivoting to OTT while also keeping their legacy businesses on track.

“My feeling is that they are damned if they do or damned if they don’t,” Dixon said. “Their audiences are moving anyway.”

And they are increasingly moving beyond the “C3” window, whereby consumers watch a show within three days of its original broadcast. In its “Video Monetization” report for the fourth quarter of 2014, FreeWheel, the Comcast-owned ad technology company, highlighted that just 28% of all TV viewing occurs within three days of a show’s linear air date, while 64% occurs after a week. That strongly suggests that a large number of consumers are using OTT to catch up.

Parks Associates, meanwhile, found that nearly 20% of U.S. broadband homes would be willing to pay for an OTT service from HBO, while more than 10% would gravitate to CBS All Access, and almost 10% would give a serious look at a similar type of offering from other premium video providers.

Parks Associates also found that 15% of pay TV subs are also “likely” to subscribe to a new OTT service. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that figure varies by demographic — 21% of millennials are likely to subscribe to one of the new OTT options, versus 19% among Gen Xers, 7% of baby boomers and 5% of “mature” consumers.

The OTT world is flush with entertainment-focused services. With CuriosityStream, Hendricks intends to fill a content gap by focusing on factual, non-fiction fare. And he’s bullish about its prospects for success.

Early on, Hendricks’s service will attempt to gain traction with the 10 million broadband homes that don’t subscribe to a TV service — essentially the same group Sling TV and HBO Now are courting.

“We think that’s the low-hanging fruit,” Hendricks said. “But we also see it as a great supplementary service for people who already have cable or satellite but welcome additional choices into the home.”

Another group that will be ripe for the picking are early adopters of 4K TVs, who will undoubtedly be thirsting for content in the pixel-packed format. Strategy Analytics reported that just 1% of U.S. homes had a 4K set in 2014, but that figure should balloon to nearly 50% by 2020, it predicted.

Hendricks cited research that found 25% of the TV market is interested in the kind of content CuriosityStream will offer, a group he calls “the life-long curious.” Such viewers want, for example, to learn about how the Panama Canal was constructed or find out more about the evolution of robotics technology.

That gives CuriosityStream a target to shoot for over the next five years as it focuses its pursuit on broadband-only homes. A “key challenge” will be marketing a direct-to-consumer product and attracting customers without the benefit of traditional MVPD-style distribution, Hendricks also acknowledged.

“If we do a good job, we should penetrate 25% of those households … that would be 2.5 million of those [broadband-only] homes.”

That’s why Hendricks is a member of Netflix’s cheering section. “If Netflix is someday in 80 million homes, I hope that we are closing in on 20 million households,” he said. (Netflix predicts that it will end the first quarter of 2015 with 61.44 million subs worldwide.)

While CuriosityStream’s content focus would appear to overlap somewhat with Discovery’s, Hendricks insists he is not about to cross swords with the company he founded.

“I don’t see it as competitive from the ground up,” he said. “We’re not competing for advertising dollars, for example. I’m also not competing for distribution on the linear television systems … I’m very proud of Discovery, and I remain a bullish shareholder, but what we’re doing is completely different.” CuriosityStream didn’t disclose Hendricks’s exact stake in Discovery, but it’s believed to be a minimal holding between 1% and 2%.

Different for now, anyway — that could change if cable doesn’t improve on its execution of TV Everywhere. Discovery is developing an authenticated TVE offering for its domestic MVPD partners, but has fired warning shots that it might consider a direct-to-consumer angle.

“If TV Everywhere doesn’t develop as it should, it will require all of us to go direct-to-consumer, because the cable guys aren’t getting it done,” David Zaslav, Discovery’s CEO, said last month during the company’s earnings call. Discovery has already had some success with OTT overseas.

On the point of TVE, Hendricks agreed. “I think the industry has fallen behind in implementing TV Everywhere,” he said. But he also said he believes it’s a good concept for existing cable channels to preserve their commercial stream while keeping advertisers and industry leaders happy. “I thought the industry would’ve had this solved about a year ago.”

He likewise said he believes some programmers should be doing a lot more with OTT, holding that “superfans” of any network would be willing to pay a bit more for access to additional content. Looking back, Hendricks recalled that some viewers were willing to send Discovery $19.95 for a solitary video cassette.

“That was the equivalent, 20 or 25 years ago, to a basic-cable subscription,” he said. “They were telling us they were willing to pay the equivalent of a month’s basic-cable bill to get control of one video.”

While OTT is changing the TV landscape and creating strongly held beliefs that online video will destroy the pay TV ecosystem, Hendricks said he sees a co-existence forming that will instead create a larger video business. Legacy players would do well to embrace these new distribution models, he said.

And history is on his side.

“Broadcasting didn’t do away with radio and cable didn’t do away with broadcasting,” he said. “The broadcast networks that played aggressively in cable are the ones that are the most valuable today.”

John Hendricks, founder of the Discovery Channel and former chairman of Discovery Communications, “retired” last May. The cable programming vet didn’t stay on the sidelines for long.

Hendricks, now the head of a venture called Curiosity Project LLC, on Wednesday introduced CuriosityStream, a multiscreen subscription video-on-demand service that will be sold at various pricing levels based on video quality  – from standard-def and HD, all the way to 4K/Ultra HD.

Billed as the “world’s first on-demand, ad-free content streaming service delivering premium factual content in the areas of science, technology, civilization, and the human spirit,” CuriousityStream will start at $2.99 per month for SD streaming, $3.99 per month for 720p, $5.99 per month for 1080 HD, and $9.99 per month for 4K.

It’s set to launch on March 18 with a library of more than 800 video titles, including fare that will be available in 4K out of the chute. Interested consumers can go to the site now to preview the service and sign up ahead of the official debut.

CuriosityStream said it will feature original commissions, documentaries and series from the BBC, NHK, ZED, Terra Noa, and Flame Distribution, and offer expert interviews and original short form programming.

On the tech end, Limelight Networks, a content delivery network company, will provide the cloud hosting for CuriosityStream, and will support a variety of formats for deliver to connected devices such as PCs and laptops, tablets and smartphones. The service will also be offered on the Apple TV, Roku platform and will be optimized for the Google Chromecast (up to HD resolution).

Hendricks said the SVOD offering fulfills a vision.

"As many in the industry know, I have long dreamed of a content-on-demand service that uses advanced media to empower the enduring human desire to understand the Universe and the world around us,” he said in a statement. “The advent of online streaming technology utilized by Netflix and other successful video streaming services has created a video transmission infrastructure that finally allows viewers to watch what they want to watch, when they want to watch it.”

Steve Burns, an Emmy Award-winning documentary producer who is late of National Geographic Channels,  WNET, Discovery Networks, and Science Channel, is heading CuriosityStream’s programming team.

The SVOD service, to be offered initially in North America, has already commissioned the production of series such as Big Picture Earth, a 20-part 4K series to be produced by David Conover, the filmmaker behind Sunrise Earth, that will feature sites such as Stonehenge, Icelandic caves, “the curiosities of Central Park,” and the canals of Venice.

Other titles include Digits (history of computers and the Internet, and Deep Time History (a series on great people and events), and Life 2000 Meters Under the Sea (ZED), Madagascar: The Lost Makay (Terra Noa), The Twilight of Civilizations (Terra Noa), and Men and Machines That Beat Hitler (BBC Worldwide).

Hendricks has served as chairman and founder of Discovery Communications, before and including the launch of the Discovery Channel on June 17, 1985. He stepped down as CEO in 2004 and remained chairman of the board through his retirement last year.