Chicken Soup For The Soul is the parent company behind Redbox, Crackel, and the streaming service by the same name. Now, the company is reportedly having cash flow issues that have resulted in some content creators not getting paid.
Recently in the second quarter, the company posted a quarterly loss of $43.7 million, or $1.50 a share, more than double the year-ago loss of $20.8 million, or $1.39 a share (when the total number of shares was half the amount). Revenue more than doubled to $79.9 million because year-ago results didn’t account for revenue from Redbox, which it acquired on August 11, 2022.
The company is in a tough situation after acquiring Redbox in 2022 for $50 million in stock and assumption of $325 million in debt. Add on top of that a shaky media environment with cratering ad revenue and quarterly losses, and the company’s future is very much in the air. In August, CEO William J. Rouhana said that the company was holding a strategic review to evaluate its opportunities, which is business speak for putting itself up for sale.
Now some content creators are reporting that they have not been paid by Chicken Soup for The Soul for their content streaming on their different platforms. “The company has been working to address cash flow issues and to pay our content owners,” CEO Bill Rouhana said in a statement to Variety. “Unfortunately, this has taken much longer than anyone anticipated. We are working to address these filmmakers and their concerns.”
Chicken Soup for The Soul announced that it was in active discussions for a potential sale back in October of this year but so far nothing has come from these talks.
Like many media companies, they have likely been impacted by a soft ad market that has negatively impacted revenues. For a company that heavily relies on ad-supported streaming, this market has to negatively impact the service. Right now the company seems confident that they will be able to work through these issues and pay their partners. For now, we will have to wait and see what happens.