Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To remove yourself from the queue, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Zaya Milando, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. We'll begin with opening remarks from our Chairman and CEO, William J. Ruhanna, followed by remarks from our CFO, Jason Meyer. After that remarks, we'll open the call for questions. The matters discussed on this call include forward-looking statements, including those regarding the performance of future fiscal years. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. This includes the risk factors set forth in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and in our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Please refer to the earnings release in the Investor Relations section of the company's website for a discussion of certain non-GAAP forward-looking measures discussed on this call. With that, I'll turn the call over to William Rahan, Chairman and CEO. Bill, please go ahead. Thanks, Zaya.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm pleased to report that we had a good start to the year with revenue and adjusted EBITDA coming in within our guidance range. Consolidated revenue for the quarter was $110 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $20 million. As many of you know, we only reported the fourth quarter six weeks ago, so there hasn't been a lot of time since that report, but it's probably worth highlighting some of the progress we've made since then. The media landscape continues to shift in a way that pushes more people to free ad-supported streaming. I'm sure you've all seen the news coming out of media earnings with studios now simultaneously removing content and increasing prices on their subscription services. forcing consumers to pay more for less. It's paying for the privilege of watching ads in most of these cases. The value proposition of our totally free, ad-supported digital services and our low-cost physical rentals is greater than ever. And our kiosk rentals remain the most affordable way to watch premium, new-release theatrical movies anywhere. As we progress through the year, we're encouraged by what we see as three ways we're growing One is the rebound we're seeing in kiosk rentals. The second is our position as a premier ad sales platform. And the third is our plan to drive free cash flow through the expansion of our services businesses, and I'll talk some more about that in a few minutes. I said in our last call that we expected the studios to rush to release many films theatrically, and that's what we're seeing. We finally reached a steady state where films are constantly arriving at the kiosks. Looking at the summer, we've got some really interesting things coming. Starting tomorrow, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Quantumania, arrives in kiosks. Next week, we'll have both Creed III and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, followed later in May by Dungeons & Dragons, Honor Among Thieves, 80 for Brady, and 65. In the first two weeks of May, we had two theatrical releases, and during the rest of the month, we'll have six additional major theatrical titles in our kiosks, with a combined box office of nearly $650 million. And that's just May. Arriving in kiosk in June, we have Renfield releasing early in the month. I'm excited about mid-June where we're going to have Super Mario Bros. and John Wick Chapter 4, followed later in the month by Avatar and Evil Dead Rise. In all, we're anticipating 11 theatrical releases to arrive in the kiosks in June, with a combined box office of nearly $1.6 billion. In July, we'll have eight theatricals arrive in kiosks, including Scream 6, Are You There, God, It's Me, Margaret, and for those of you not keeping count, that's 27 theatrical releases arriving between May and July, with a combined box office of nearly $2.5 billion. And August is shaping up to be just as impressive. It's exactly what we were looking for when we first took over Redbox. But we've only seen three major event movies from August to February. So keep in mind, the title counts I mentioned don't include originals or direct-to-video titles. It's just the big ones. Including those, these new title counts come in from May through July at 48. Our second pillar of growth is our position as a premier ad sales platform. We just came out of a very successful New Fronts presentation a couple of weeks ago, which you'll be able to watch on our website in the coming days. And I suggest you do it. It's very impressive. There's some really good stuff there. You'll see Redbox streaming. You'll see Crackle streaming, Chicken Soup for the Soul streaming, and a lot of interesting, innovative ad techniques we've launched. We're thrilled with the response to our Crackle Connects platform, and we continue to build it out as a leading supplier for independent AVOD services and digital out-of-home networks. In fact, we now represent over 10,000 digital out-of-home screens through our deals with CoinStars, Ad Planet Retail Media Group, and Velocity MSC. We have the potential and the scale to be a large participant in the digital out-of-home business, which in turn can be a tailwind to revenue generation at our kiosks. adding in another revenue stream to our business. We've also presented a number of new and renewed projects through our branded entertainment group. Series like At Home with Genevieve Garda, Just for Kicks, a brand new show about the hottest new sneaker drops, and new seasons of our original hit series from executive producer Ashton Kutcher, Going from Broke, as well as Inside the Black Box, Pet Caves, and Wedding Talk. As you know, we partner with leading national advertisers like the General Insurance, PetSmart, and Men's Warehouse, among many others, to mitigate the costs and risks associated with production. Beyond brand entertainment, Crackle Connects is also developing a number of data and technology partnerships that will allow for targeting, execution, and measurement of ad campaigns across platforms. Later this year, we'll be rolling out interactive ads through Amazon Publisher Direct, to Amazon DSP advertisers. The ads will connect viewers directly to checkout by using their voice or remote control to add items to cart and complete purchases. We've also announced partnerships with measurement companies Upwave and GeoPath to measure positive ad lift in both series and digital video screens, respectively. Our ability to provide exceptional service to our ad rep partners is complemented by the depth and quality of our film and television catalog, which remains in high demand. And I'm pleased to announce what I'm hoping will be the first of many announcements with Tata2, a leading European-based social media entertainment company. We'll bring our extensive catalog of films and television series to their innovative platform as they roll out internationally, allowing us to expand our global footprint. This is the first platform of scale that rewards audiences for viewing and engaging with content, and I couldn't be more excited to explore ways to incorporate their tech into our networks. Finally, generating free cash flow remains a priority and will continue to be driven by the rental rebound we're seeing, along with continued cost management initiatives. Additionally, the success we're seeing with our service businesses, both our kiosk and ad rep, has encouraged us to look at our entire business to identify other opportunities to apply the service model and generate incremental revenue that can be immediately converted to cash flow. As you know, our kiosk service and ad rep business continues to scale, providing greater value for our B2B clients. Our ad rep clients have grown to 22 leading independent AVODs and digital out-of-home networks. We've grown the number of kiosk service customers to four, including Echo ATM, KiMi, Pokemon, and Amazon, with whom we have a long-standing partnership. In addition to these partners, we have a full pipeline of potential new customers with many pilot programs in or near launch. A low upfront investment combined with synergy opportunities makes these service businesses very attractive, and we continue to look at the rest of our overall business to find other opportunities to create additional service revenue. In closing, I'm excited by the results we're seeing early in the year and look forward to updating you on our progress in the months to come. Now I'll turn the call over to Jason, who will walk you through the financials.