WildBrain Ltd.

Good morning and welcome to Wildbrain's fiscal 2021 first quarter earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during that time, please press star and then one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the pound key. I'd now like to turn the call over to Nancy Chan-Palmatier, Director, Investor Relations at Wildbrain. You may begin your conference.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Speaking on the call today are Eric Ellenbogen, our CEO, Aaron Ames, our CFO, and Josh Sherba, our President. Also with us and available during the question and answer session is Danielle Neith, our EVP of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer. First, we have some standard cautionary statements. The matters discussed on this call include forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws with respect to Wildbrain, including but not limited to statements regarding future deals and investments by the company, the impacts of COVID-19 on the company and its business, the business strategies and operational activities of the company, the markets and industries in which the company operates, and the future financial and operating performance of the company. Such statements are based on information currently available and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results or events in the future could differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements as a result of various 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. For the question and answer session that will follow, we ask that each analyst keep to one question with one follow-up so that everyone has a chance to ask questions. If you would like to ask an additional question, please rejoin the queue. Please note that we are all in separate locations for the call today, so we do appreciate your patience if we encounter any lumpiness as we steer through the Q&A. I will now hand the call over to our CEO, Eric Ellenbogen.

Thank you, Nancy. Good morning, good afternoon to everyone, and thank you for joining us today. It's only been a few weeks since our year-end call, so I'm going to focus today on new developments since the close of the quarter. The most important news since September is our expanded partnership with Apple TV Plus for Peanuts, which was announced on October 19th. This is the largest content deal in our company's history, making Apple TV Plus the new home for all of our Peanuts content. This multi-year worldwide deal expands our pre-existing partnership with Apple TV Plus, and under this new agreement, we will be making significantly more new content for the platform. well beyond what was ordered under our 2018 agreement. Apple TV Plus has also licensed the full library of our classic Peanuts content, and needless to say, this is a tremendous deal for our company. Let me walk you through what this means for Wildbrain. First, let's look back at the original Apple deal we did in December 2018. We really couldn't say much at the time about that deal, but I can share more details now. Included in that first agreement were orders for Season 1 of Snoopy in Space, which was delivered to Apple TV Plus last fall and has been one of the most popular series on the platform, so much so that Apple TV Plus has ordered a second season, which is now in production. That original deal also included Season 1 of The Snoopy Show, which Apple unveiled to audiences in a sneak peek last month. We're also in production with that show, too, which is slated to debut worldwide on Apple's platform in February 2021. And the original deal also included orders for multiple new family specials to mark Mother's Day, Earth Day, New Year's Eve, and back to school. And all of these specials are now also in production at our studio. Let's take a look at the expanded partnership, which was just announced. It includes, first, more new original Peanuts series, introducing a whole new generation to Snoopy, Woodstock, Charlie Brown and the gang. Second, a number of additional new family specials beyond those already in production. Third, a new 70th anniversary Peanuts documentary, which we're co-producing with Ron Howard's Imagine Documentaries. and finally other new large projects as well over the term of this expanded agreement. In addition to this extensive slate of new content, Apple TV Plus has also licensed our full library of classic Peanuts content, including the beloved Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas specials. These specials are some of the most popular TV shows ever made. They have consistently enjoyed strong ratings for 50 years, and we're thrilled that Apple is making them available for free viewing to everyone during the holiday season. All of our Peanuts content will be available on Apple TV Plus through apps and websites worldwide on just about any web-enabled device, including Apple iPhones and iPads, as well as devices from other manufacturers such as smart TVs, computers, tablets, and smartphones. Through Apple TV Plus, audiences around the world, including most who actually never seen Peanuts content in TV, will be able to immerse themselves in our new shows and the classic specials whenever and wherever they like on any device. The anticipated reach of this global deal is well beyond anything previously achieved. This partnership will significantly amplify exposure for the Peanuts brand for many years to come, which we firmly believe will drive significant growth for our global consumer products business. Peanuts is a top 10 character brand at retail, where it enjoys success across virtually every product category. The franchise is now celebrating its 70th anniversary and has secured dozens of new consumer products licenses driven by this milestone. Many of these agreements were brokered by our wholly owned licensing agency, Wildbrain CPLG, exemplifying the collaboration we're implementing across our company. As we reach new audiences and new generations of kids through Apple TV+, not only do we expect the existing Peanuts licensing business to grow, we also expect it to expand in underdeveloped merchandising categories, particularly in the kids' demographic. The importance of this partnership for Wildbrain cannot be overstated. It reflects a long-term commitment for new Peanuts content from a leading global media platform. It also elevates our creative profile to an entirely new level. It secures our production pipeline for years to come, providing visibility on our future earnings. And it will drive meaningful growth in our consumer products business. And that's just Peanuts. As we activate more and more brands from our deep IP portfolio, there'll be lots more news to come. I'd like to now invite Josh Sherba, our president, to provide some color on the shifts we're seeing in content demand and how premium content deals, such as this one, play out in our earnings. Josh?