Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc.

Thank you for joining us. We are here to provide a corporate update and report on Thunderbird Entertainment Group's third quarter 2021 fiscal results, which ended March 31st, 2021. Speaking on today's call are Ms. Jennifer Twyna McCarron, Thunderbird CEO, and Ms. Barb Harwood, Thunderbird CFO. Ms. Twyna McCarn will provide a strategic overview of Thunderbirds Entertainment Group, and Ms. Harwood will review the company's Q3 financials. Following the corporate update and financial review, the call will open up for question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Alternatively, if you have any questions, you can call plus 1-604-683-3555 or email investors at thunderbird.tv. The company will follow up directly after the call. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. I'd like to remind everyone that certain statements made on today's call will be forward-looking and constitute forward-looking statements. or forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information discussed on this conference call include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to companies' objectives, goals, future plans, and the business operations of the company. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include but are not limited to general business, economic and social uncertainties, litigations, legislatives, environmental, and other judicial, regulatory, political, and competitive developments. Those additional risks set out in the company's filing statements and other public documents filed on CDOR at www.cdor.com and other matters discussed in the company's year-end news release. Although the company believes that the assumptions and factors in preparing these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this presentation, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. If set required by law, the company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. For your convenience, the press release the MD&A and unaudited financial statements for the third quarter of 2021 of Thunderbirds Entertainment Group, which ended March 31, 2021, are filed on CDAR and are available online under the Investor section of our website. We do not expect to update forward-looking statements continually as conditions change. This conference call is being webcast live, and the archive will be available on the company's website at www.thunderbird.tv following today's call. Please note that Thunderbirds reports in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated. Ms. Twiner McCarran will now provide the corporate update.

Thank you so much. On behalf of everyone at Thunderbird, I'd like to welcome you to this morning's call to discuss our Q3 results for fiscal 2021, which ended March 31st, 2021. My name is Jennifer Twiner McCarran, and I'm the president and CEO of Thunderbird Entertainment Group. I'm here today with our CFO, Barb Harwood, and we are both very thankful to have you here with us. Once Barb and I finish our updates, we will be happy to answer all questions you may have. Thunderbird Entertainment is a high-quality global content company. We create, own, and distribute award-winning factual, animated, and scripted content around the world. We have meaningful and trusted partnerships with all of the major streamers and broadcasters, such as Netflix, HBO Max, Apple, Disney, Discovery, NBCUniversal, PBS, CBC, to list only a few. In addition, we have over 1,000 employees with our head office in Vancouver and other locations in Los Angeles, Ottawa, and Toronto. Q3 was another strong quarter for Thunderbird and a true reflection of the extraordinary work of our talented teams. In addition to the continued demand we are seeing for our company's premium content, Throughout the quarter, we continue to scale up, bringing on new team members across the entire organization. We also secured some exciting new partnerships, a few of which we'll discuss later in this call. In a moment, Bob will walk us through the numbers for Q3, but before that, I want to take a quick moment to highlight two elements which are not only incredibly important at Thunderbird, but also the main drivers of our company's success. The first is our team, the creators and producers behind our content. Our team propels the company forward through phenomenal work that they produce and deliver to our global partners. Thunderbird would not be where it is at today and growing so rapidly if it was not for our people. From our animators to our film crews, to our producers, to IT, to HR and finance, each department is filled with remarkable individuals, all contributing in specific and impactful ways. In fact, in a year when many production companies struggled, Our teams demonstrated incredible resilience by coming together. Despite the need to quickly move everyone off-site to prioritize health and safety, we have not missed one delivery or created one financial overage for any of our partners, only deepening all of our partners' trust in us. As a CEO, I'm always thrilled to celebrate the accomplishments of our people because everything starts with them. We want to make sure that all voices are heard and valued and that no one feels just like a number. We also want to create a culture of excellence where people feel safe to innovate and safe to take risks. When you have a chance to try new things, regardless of the result, innovation will arise. This brings me to my second highlight, which is our content. At Thunderbird, our mission is to create content that makes the world a better place, makes people happy, and provides a much-needed escape, especially during these unprecedented times. By keeping quality as our North Star, we're receiving recognition within our community, the industry, and from our peers. Thunderbird aims to have our content entertain, inspire, and empower. And in many cases, we're also giving a voice to stories that need to be told. During and subsequent to the quarter, I'm proud to report that our productions are recognized with nominations and awards from the following outlets and organizations. The Banff Rookie Awards 2021, Youth Media Alliance, Kids Screen, the Canadian Screen Awards, the Leo Awards, the Deli Awards, and the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. Some of the many productions that continue to turn heads are Molly of Denali, Queen of the Oil Patch, Kim's Convenience, all of which are recognized for how they champion inclusive representation with diverse and authentic lead characters. We are so proud to tell stories like these and believe that everybody in the world deserves the opportunity to see themselves in popular content reflected back in a positive light. Productions like these clearly demonstrate our commitment to diversity and inclusivity, both on screen and behind camera. And we're doubling down on our mission to make a positive difference in the world. For example, we are proud to have won the BC Business of Good Award for diversity and inclusion. And more recently, on behalf of my team, I was also recognized by BC Business as an equity and inclusion champion in the 2021 Women of the Year Awards. This is work that our entire company believes in as part of our core mission and values, and it also reflects our commitment to helping advance issues of gender representation and the inclusion of BIPOC and LGBTQ2S in communities. As a global content creation company, we not only have the unique ability to influence society through the stories we create, but we also have the responsibility to audiences to deliver on that promise. In addition, we know that diverse, inclusive companies where people feel safe and honored also perform better at every level of the organization. Increasing focus on diversity and inclusivity is not just the right thing to do, it's also extremely good for business, the results of which Bob will now discuss. After that, I'll be back to dig in to some more of the company specifics. However, just before Barb gets started, please join me in congratulating Barb for being named by Report on Business as one of the top 50 best executives in Canada. Congrats, Barb. Over to you.

Thanks, Jen. I'm very fortunate to work with an incredible finance team at Thunderbird who support me every day and certainly make me look better than I would otherwise be. um and now to the q3 results q3 was our strongest quarter ever with revenue of 37.7 million and 85.4 million for the three and nine months ending march 31st 2021 as compared to 29.6 million and 60.2 million for the comparative periods of fiscal 2020 increases of 27 and 42 percent respectively The majority of these increases over the comparative periods in 2020 is related to growth in production services attributed to the kids and family division. The company has two principal revenue streams, production services and licensing and distribution. Production services revenue is earned for service work performed on projects where the company does not own the IP. Licensing and distribution revenue is earned when the company owns the copyright to a project and subsequently enters into a broadcast or distribution agreement to license the project for a specific term. Production services revenue was $19.4 million and $53.2 million, increases over Q3 2020 of $6.6 million and $18.4 million, or 52% and 53% respectively. which was due to an increase in the number and size of contract. Licensing and distribution revenue was $18.3 million and $32.1 million for the three and nine months ended March 31st, 2021, increases of 9%, $1.5 million, and 27%, $6.8 million, over the comparative period, due mainly to the delivery of another three episodes of the animated series The Last Kids on Earth in the current period, In the current quarter, the company also recognized revenue from 13 episodes of Kim's Convenience Season 5 and 40 episodes of three factual series, Heavy Rescue 401, Mud Mountain Haulers, and Save My Reno. In the comparative quarter, revenue was recognized from 13 episodes of Kim's Convenience Season 4 and 35 episodes of three factual series, Heavy Rescue, High Arctic Haulers, and Save My Reno. Gross margins decrease from 38% to 33% in the nine months ending March 31st, 2021 over the comparative nine months. Gross margins for own content are typically higher than production services due to the fact that content stays in our library and is able to earn recurring revenue. There is also variety in the gross margins of our own content because each series is its own business model. growth margin for production services, alternatively, is typically lower than that of own content. When production service revenue increases as an overall percentage of our revenue, our margins may decrease. Production services revenue as a percentage of overall revenue increased from 58% to 62% year to date. In addition, Due to the incredible strength of our quarter, we took the time to conservatively look at older titles in our library. With Richard Goldsmith joining in January as President of Consumer Products and Distribution, he was able to use his expertise to advise on titles and their ultimate worth. As a result, we decided to record an additional amortization of investment and content of $1.5 million this quarter, further strengthening our balance sheet while continuing to put up great numbers and excellent growth trajectory. Year-to-date, the company's production backlog was $102.2 million compared to $86.1 million as of March 31, 2020. This backlog is defined as the undiscounted value of signed agreements for production services and licensing and distribution agreements for which the title expects to recognize revenue in future periods. Adjusted EBITDA was $7.4 million and $17.3 million for the three and nine months ended March 31st, 2021, increases of 8%, 0.5 million and 39%, 4.8 million respectively. These increases were primarily due to growth in production services revenue over the comparable period, as mentioned before. I want to point out an input error in the EBITDA table in the press release only. Deferred income tax is showing as 1.405 and 980 for the three and nine months ending March 31st, 2021. The correct numbers for deferred income tax expense, which can be found in the MD&A on page 8, are 1.014 and 589. All other numbers in the EBITDA table in the press release are correct. Free cash flow was $1.8 million and $7.5 million for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2021. a decrease of $2.7 million and an increase of $2.8 million, respectively. These fluctuations are mainly due to changes in working capital and production loan repayment. And finally, the consolidated cash position at March 31st was $18.8 million, with $11.5 million being required for production and $7.3 million available for general use. In addition, the company continues to operate with no corporate debt. And now back to you, Jen.

Thanks so much, Barb. Q3 is typically strong in our business, and this is tied to some of our production and delivery schedules. It should also be noted that quarters can be lumpy in this industry, and it's best to evaluate the company's growth on an annual basis because this is where you will see a natural and exciting growth cadence with us in year-over-year results. We're still on track in 2021 to meet or beat the growth that we saw in 2020. At this point, I'd like to take a deeper look at our Q3 corporate update. This quarter Thunderbird was in production on 21 projects with 10 of them being owned, IP or partner managed. Our kids and family division, Atomic Cartoons, was in various stages of production on 12 animated series and two feature-length animation projects, 14 productions in total. This included Mighty Express for Netflix, produced in partnership with Spin Master, Molly of Denali Season 2 for GBH and PBS Kids, The Last Kids on Earth for Netflix, My Little Pony for Hasbro and Entertainment One, team up for Disney+, bringing Spider-Verse to the preschool set. And we're also producing another Curious George film for Peacock. Atomic's owned IP for The Last Kids on Earth also saw two new exciting milestones in the quarter, including the premiere of our company's first ever Netflix interactive special in April, which subsequently made Netflix top 10 list for all shows watched, not just kids and family. and a June 4th launch for upcoming video game with Outright Games. These two achievements demonstrate the importance of owned IP for us at Thunderbird and The Last Kids on Earth is just the start of what we've got in the works. In addition to the video game deal we have with Outright, we've also secured a master toy deal with Jack's Pacific and an online apparel deal with retailer Hot Topic. I'll speak more about our growing IP strategy in just a moment. Circling back to a few of the awards I mentioned earlier, subsequent to the quarter, after winning a Peabody Intelligent Critics Association Award in 2020, Atomic's Molly of Denali was nominated for a Youth Media Alliance of Excellence, which actually we just found out we won about five minutes before this call, and a BAMF Rookie Award. So huge congrats to the Molly of Denali team. Following on its 2020 Daytime Emmy Awards, The Last Kids on Earth was also nominated for a Youth Media Award. And just this past month, Teens at Atomic Cartoons also received 15 Leo Award nominations across five different projects. I'd like to offer a huge thanks to our industry partners for recognizing the hard work of our various cast and crews. We could not be more proud. It's such an exciting time at Atomic. Prior to COVID-19, we were in the midst of an animation boom with heightened demand for animation, including adult animation. The pandemic has only accelerated the demand for animated content. Our kids and family division has an animation team of 800 people between three locations and is trending towards exceeding 900 people by the end of the calendar year 2021. Additional content in 2015, we had 18 bid requests. In 2020, we had 67 bid requests. And in 2021, we are on track to over 80 bid requests, which averages out to roughly two a week. These bids include all business models, service, partnerships, and IP. Shifting our focus to our Factional and Scripted Division, Great Pacific Media was in production on six series and one documentary special in the second quarter. Highway to Hell Season 10, Heavy Rescue 401 Season 6, Save My Reno Season 4, Mud Mountain Haulers Season 1, Dr. Savannah Wild Rose Vets Season 1, and Strays Season 1, which is our follow-up to Kim's Convenience, our spinoff. And The Teenager and the Lost Mayan City, which is an upcoming documentary for CBC. I'd like to take a moment to focus on Dr. Savannah Wildrose-Vette, which is the first project to be made for a new joint partnership with Wampanoag Media. This documentary-style series, which is scheduled to air on APTN and Cottage Life in 2022, follows the remarkable Métis veterinarian, Dr. Savannah House-Smith, as she works to keep rural Alberta's pet and animal population healthy and thriving, all while learning more about her recently confirmed Métis bloodline. As part of our work to create industry opportunities for the BIPOC community, this series is actively recruiting Indigenous production staff in Vancouver and Alberta. It will also sponsor apprenticeships throughout the summer of 2021. Headed by the talented Indigenous production team of Shirley McLean and Tanya Conagosier, Wauponotok Media represents the next evolution in our commitment to promoting diversity and authentic representation. It builds on the legacy of other Indigenous productions we've been proud to make, including Queen of the Oil Patch, which was also just nominated for a 2021 Leo Award. Also at Great Pacific, we're very proud that Save My Reno, our lifestyle series for HGTV, was also nominated for a 2021 Leo Award. And hot off the press, Cords just announced yesterday 35 green lights and renewals, of which there are three new Great Pacific Media series. We will have more to share on this in the coming weeks. On the scripted side, I wanted to highlight an upcoming comedy and production called Strays, which is a spin-off of Kim's Convenience. Strays is slated to premiere on CBC Television in 2021-22 television season, and will follow Shannon Ross, Nicole Power, as she embarks on a new career in a new city. Many of the creatives behind Kim's Convenience are also attached to Strays, and we look forward to seeing how our audiences respond when it premieres. Speaking of Kim's, it was announced that Kim's Convenience would end after these five groundbreaking seasons. We are so incredibly proud of everyone involved in this series. At Thunderbird, as producers, we would have loved to keep going beyond five seasons, but we always support our showrunners in their creative decisions. Inns Troy and Kevin White, the co-creators of Kim's, felt that the series and its characters had run their course, and the vision was to end on a high note, which we can get behind. We're also proud of the enduring legacy of Kim's Convenience Leaves Behind as one of Canada's most popular scripted comedies, including winning four Canadian Screening Awards just recently. including Best Actor in a Comedy, Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy, Best Guest Actor in a Comedy, and Best Photography in a Comedy. It was also nominated for two Leo Awards, which will be announced later this month. We also cannot wait to see what the talented cast and crew of Kim's Convenience will come up with next, starting with Simi Liu, starring in the upcoming Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, scheduled to premiere this September. In addition to Nicole Power and Strays, Andrew Fong also has an upcoming series in production for CBC, which is entitled Run the Birds. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Gene Yoon also have some exciting projects in the works, and we can't wait to see those come to fruition. Now I'd like to focus on our IP strategies. To take full advantage of the opportunities we have from leveraging our growing IP library, we have launched a new global distribution and consumer products provision in Q3, headed by Richard Goldsmith, whom we are incredibly honored to have joined our team. Well regarded as one of the best in the industry, and having worked with Disney, Warner Brothers, the Jim Henson Company, Richard joined Thunderbird because he saw the incredible work taking place in our studios. Since bringing him on board our leadership team, I've been receiving regular calls from partners around the world asking, wow, how did you hire Richard? This new division will allow us to further increase and exploit our IP ownership in video games, merch, cross-media exploitation as we produce and distribute content around the world. This means we will be able to further increase and leverage ownership for Thunderbird properties and no longer need to bring on third-party consumer products or distribution partners. The division also means we have the capacity to act in this role for other companies seeking expertise, representing another opportunity to diversify and grow our business. Beyond our IP for the New York Times bestselling book series, The Last Kids on Earth, Other announced properties that we're setting up with the new division include Nate Create with the Jim Henson Company of Muppets fame, and Murmur Corno from Tokidoki, the insanely popular Japanese-inspired lifestyle brand. We've also identified several IP opportunities from our factual and scripted division, including video games emanating from our action-oriented factual series like Heavy Rescue 401. Before I conclude my remarks today, I'd like to share a few recent survey findings from Deloitte, which confirms that 2021 continues to be an excellent time to be in the business of content creation. According to Deloitte, 82% of US consumers now subscribe to at least one paid streaming video service, and the average subscriber is already paying for four separate platforms. When you factor in these consumer preferences to what streamers were willing to spend on content, with more than $112 billion estimated spend in 2021 alone, the opportunities we have before us at Thunderbird Entertainment Group are truly massive. The consolidation that we're seeing in the industry only helps companies like Thunderbird as high-quality premium content like Thunderbird continue to be under increasing demand. The confidence our global partners place in Thunderbird is one of the key reasons we have dozens of projects in our development pipeline, plus visibility and booking well into 2023. We also have some exciting new projects that are just entering production, plus a batch of recently confirmed series renewals. As soon as we're able to share the details, you'll be among the first to know. As I wrap up my remarks today, I'd like to thank you again for joining us to discuss the results we achieved in the third quarter of fiscal 2021. We are well on our way to becoming the next major global studio and are thrilled to be on this journey with all of you. Now, Barb and I are pleased to take any and all of your questions. Thank you so much.

And as a reminder, in order to ask a question, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Barry Fine with Spartan Capital Security.

Hey, thank you for taking my question. Our first question is on Kim's convenience and, you know, broader question on scripted in general. I've recently discovered that it's really a great I think it's representative of your culture. Your first scripted program, but very successful. You sold at the largest streamer, and you pick up a lot of the Canadian subsidies for production costs. You've announced the first spin, so a couple questions on that. Will that be picked up in the U.S.? Presumably, are there more projects coming from the producers? You've talked a bit about some of the actors and what they're doing. And then just from a macro perspective, scripted, even though you don't have a lot of scripted programs, seems like you've been very, very successful. So from an investor standpoint, you would seem to want more and more and more of that. Can you talk about that, please?

Yeah, absolutely. So to address the first part of your question, definitely Kim's is ours. We own the copyright. We will distribute it. So all of those five seasons stay with us. We can set them up anywhere around the world and continue to find life in those seasons. It already is airing second window with Netflix, but we have the ability to sell Kim's Convenience wherever we want. And with regards to our scripted strategy, that's a great question, Barry. We've approached it opportunistically. We're really lucky that our two main drivers, Great Pacific Media and Atomic Cartoons, Kids and Family and Factual, check that key co-viewing box that every streamer's strategy is that you need to glue Kids and Family to glue subscribers. And what do kids and family watch? You know, animation or factual. They're much less likely to subscribe and unsubscribe than kids and family are glued. Scripted is a part of our strategy going forward. We want to create diverse content that appeals around the globe. We've taken really safe swings. You can look at some of our comps and see how sometimes it can go very, very well and sometimes not. I think part of our extremely clean balance sheet and growth is that while we take calculator risks, We want to be sure of the return on that investment. So I would say absolutely stay tuned for more scripted. There is some amazing discussion in the works. But we're going to approach it in a way where we feel really confident of its success and delivery to our shareholders.

And just on that, the production team is still working with Thunderbird, and we may see some projects from them? That's correct. That's great news. A question for Barb, or actually a couple of questions, if you don't mind, on some of the numbers. I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, this is the first time we're seeing the backlog number, and you described what that means, and that's in the MD&A. How does that relate? If I look at that backlog number, how can I use that as a forward-looking indicator to look at future revenue, specifically how far out might that backlog come into the revenue. And I know you discuss in the description of backlog that there's certain types of revenue that are not included in the backlog number variable and so on. I don't know how important those types of revenue are versus the other types that are in the backlog. Could you give us a sense of how we can use backlog to forecast future results?

Oh, great question. Thanks, Barry. Yeah, backlog is something that we're disclosing for the first time this quarter. And essentially what it is, it's the main bulk of our business. It's the production service agreements for production, the licensing and distribution agreements. And what it is, is any time an agreement is signed, if we have not yet recognized that revenue, it will fall into backlog. And given the fact that, you know, usually an agreement isn't signed until, you know, we're greenlit and we're almost started production and that kind of thing, the backlog is typically going to be recognized within 12 to 24 months. And given that this is the first time I'm starting to track those numbers, I'll start to see, you know, a pattern as we continue to disclose it. The variable portion of it is relatively minuscule. The things that we can't predict, of course, in backlog is, you know, FX wins from, you know, U.S. contracts and that kind of thing.

Does that help? And then the timeline, does that go like years or months or days ahead?

Between 12 and 24 months. The majority of it is in the next 12 months.

Okay. And another question for you, Barb, while I have you on the hot seat, if you don't mind. You give out some non-financial metrics, specifically the number of episodes that are recognized in licensing and distribution revenue, and then on production, when you give those numbers out, you give those out in terms of the number of series that you're working on. I want to ask you again if I can get a little assistance on using those numbers to understand what you've just recorded. So, for example, licensing and production, I think you called out 56 episodes. Is that inclusive? I'm assuming it's not, that there's some library that was recognized. And then on production, can we use that as a forward indicator? Presumably you're producing them now. Those are going to show up in revenue going forward.

Yeah, so in our MD&A, we disclose between production services revenue and licensing and distribution. The licensing and distribution is our own content. So when we disclose what number of episodes that we are recognizing in that licensing and distribution number, that kind of gives you an idea of what content is in that number. Now, unfortunately, as I mentioned, every project is sort of a different business model. So you can't just take that number, divide it by, you know, 40 episodes and come up with a per episode number because each project has a different model and a different finance plan and that kind of stuff. But it does give you an idea on a year-over-year basis of what, you know, like a future period might look like if we have season renewals because we've had so many season renewals on our, you know, our heavy rescue. We're in season five, Mud Mountain Haulers season one, Save My Reno season four, that kind of stuff. So if you can look back at the past history, you can kind of predict the future as long as you know that those series are renewed. On the production services side, it's a little bit more difficult. We talk about what we're in production in now to sort of indicate that in future periods, we will have revenue coming in for production services, which is recognized on a percentage of completion basis. So I guess if you logically, if you look at a particular project in production services, our animation pipelines are between, you know, probably the shortest is 12 months up to two years. You know that that project is going to be contributing revenue and direct costs over that period of time. Does that help?

That's incredible. And just one clarification. So on licensing and distribution, you've called that 56 episodes. Does that represent all of the revenue reported or the majority or are there some other sources of revenue in there?

There'll be some other sources of revenue that are more minor. Like every quarter we always have some library revenue, so some projects that have already been delivered. There'll be, you know, things like, you know, music royalties and that kind of thing. But the bulk of it is from those first initial deliveries on those shows that we disclose. And, yes, I'm adding them up, 53 episodes plus three, actually. So we're 56 episodes. We had 40 episodes of the factual theories and 13 episodes of Kim's and three episodes of the last Kim's.

OK. Those are my questions. Thank you for taking them all.

Thank you, Barry. Thank you, Barry. And your next question comes from the line of Aravina Dilipath with IGE. Hi, Aravina.

Thanks. Thanks for taking my questions. I have a couple of questions. James, just on the owned IP, I know you talked about the success you've had with Last Kids on Earth. You're doing a lot of good service work for the other major S4 platforms. I wanted to sort of get some insight into what conversations you might be having with respect to, you know, work on the owned IP side for these other major platforms. You think about Apple, Peacock, HBO, Max, et cetera. Is there anything in the pipeline, given you've already done some good service work for them? So I wanted to get some color there. And secondly, maybe for Barb on the backlog, are you able to kind of give us a sense of the split between production and service? I don't know if it was in the MDM, I missed it, but just wondering if there's any clarification you can provide there.

Thanks so much, Aravinda. Definitely, we are having a lot of conversations. The team, Matt, Richard, our team in Los Angeles, our development team has been out pitching shows. We are working with all of the streamers pretty much. And so when you do a great job in service, it's that much easier to turn around and sell your own IP. and um there you know there's a lot of exciting things i can't speak in detail right now um but you know we have a very strong slate uh we're bringing out um several projects at a time and um yeah there's a ton of activity and conversations happening of which i'm very excited about and in terms of your backlog question um we we do not disclose the separation between the ip and service yet

Backlog is obviously a new thing this quarter, and it would be a good question. So I'll think about that for future quarters as we track the backlog.

Thanks, Barb. And just one more before I hand off. You've had a good balance sheet for a long period of time. I know that you are not close to the idea of M&A. Can you just talk to what your thoughts are? It's essentially the same. You're looking for potentially opportunities on the international front and perhaps even IP opportunities. Has anything changed or is valuations a problem? Just wanted to get a sense of what you're running into when you think about M&A. What's sort of turning you off or what feedback you're getting?

Yeah, I'd say increasing conversations in that area, Aravinda. We are extremely excited about having more of an international footprint, be it one to go, you know, where are the streamers going? Where do they need to increase subscriptions? Where are countries we can own and turn on more of our own IP? Where are countries that will provide us a greater capacity pipeline as well as developing those services? countries into being their own IP giants in and of their own right. And we are looking within North America as well for complementary, exciting skill sets. As we've discussed, we've got a really clean balance sheet. We have fantastic organic growth with wonderful visibility. So we're in the fortunate position of having a runway where we don't need to look at anything like a roll-up strategy. Getting bigger for the sake of getting bigger is not of interest to us. We're being strategic. We have a lot of great opportunities at hand, and we have many conversations underway.

That's great. Thank you. I'll toss the line.

Thank you.

And your next question comes from the line of Adam Wilk with Greystone Capital Management.

Hey, how you doing, guys? Thanks a lot for taking my question. Really appreciate it. So I guess I can just follow up on the last set of questions by asking some more about M&A. Within that talk, I guess what type of situation do you think would be most attractive in terms of like the actual content? I know it's tough to say, but are you looking at more of like maybe the animated space or more like production documentary type space? And how would you kind of value that sort of thing and how are you sort of thinking about the returns on that potential spend i guess kind of what i'm asking is like how are production companies valued and how are you guys kind of looking at that as you kind of scan the landscape

Yeah, great question, Adam. We're looking across all of our core competencies in terms of making an international play and being able to leverage the great relationship we have with the streamers. They would love us to have ownership in countries where they're required to turn on content native to that region. So that could be animated, it could be factual, it could be scripted. Certainly, when we look at companies and their valuation, we're thinking, you know, what's their runway? Do they have the competency internally to create their own IP? Are they doing excellent work? Do they have a shared value system? Is quality their North Star? How do they treat their employees will be, you know, huge trust. And as we continue to dig in with the many conversations that we have, we're looking, you know, culture, strategy, the financials have to make sense. It needs to be accretive. And we think, you know, is this a wild announcement? Will the market and our partners and the the core of our business respond to this in a way that's like, oh, that makes a ton of sense. This is amazing. All of those things in mind. And we feel really fortunate that we are having so many conversations and that, you know, really inspiring, exciting companies around the world are happy to have these conversations with us. So they're well underway as we continue to You know, use our wonderful organic growth runway of work that's already well booked. But of course, we do have a goal to become the next major global studio. And with that comes an international play and increased ownership. So it's incredibly exciting for our team as we embark upon the journey.

Yeah, thank you. That's really helpful. And just in line with that, your comments, the distribution part, I get completely. But is M&A talk also kind of a statement on maybe there's a ceiling on organic growth? Or how are you guys kind of thinking about that? Obviously, as you scale, it requires increased investment in talent, which you know i don't i don't really know the landscape um in that respect too well but is there sort of a cap on that is how you're looking at that or is it just more like a compliment or to enhance distribution how are you guys kind of thinking about that yeah so we you know obviously we want to keep putting up the same numbers we have in the year-over-year growth and um if just

getting bigger for the sake of getting bigger. At a certain point, you'll stop to do what you do really well, which is make really high quality content and be a company that every buyer wants to work with. And so there's a lot of different strategies behind it. If we were to acquire a company, that creates their own IP, then we're feeding our own consumer products and distribution line. We're looking at complementary core competencies, maybe it's in technology that we're using, certain different types of production. that we could look at companies also that can help us expand capacity because they have similar pipelines and we can fill them. We say no to a lot of work. So we're confident that if we were to acquire someone overseas, we can keep them busy. um and um and you know we can also tap into what makes these companies great with regards to our countries that have similar tax credit structure to canada where the government is invested in the industry they have tax credits they have bills that are being passed similar to canada's that say hey streamers if you want to stream here a certain percentage of the profits you make need to be reinvested into the system All of that strategy comes into play when we're circling around who to target.

Thank you. That's really helpful. Just two more higher-level questions for me. You kind of touched on one a second ago a little bit. Just in talking about the current environment, now that the world, and I'm assuming Hollywood, et cetera, is getting comfortable sort of going back to normal, has your pipeline or demand environment changed at all? Are you seeing changes?

sort of any increased competition for bids etc i know you just mentioned you're turning down a lot of work um any color you want to provide on that would be helpful yeah i know it's it's if anything it's just heating up so it just allows us as a company to be in the luxurious position of sort of choosing uh what makes the best alignment um for you know quality for business sense um all of that the the boom for content is here to stay you know industry-wide, the professional opinion is that at least for the next five, seven, eight years, this incredible boom in investment and content that we're seeing is not going anywhere.

Fair enough. Thank you. And then last one, in looking at the recently reported gross margins, or I guess just in general, what sort of revenue mix and why would be optimal for you guys to see either short term or maybe down the road in terms of the mix between service work and licensing and distribution? And how are you sort of thinking about layering your consumer products and distribution on top of that as it maybe relates to like a percent of your business that you're interested in seeing it grow to?

yeah certainly um you know we we are increasing our focus on ip by um you know we're so fortunate to hire richard goldsmith and by opening up that own that division it allows us to be able to turn more work into ip but it's a very healthy mix um and we will you know the next couple years are investment we won't start to see um the fruits of the labor of having selling shows you know, making them and setting up, you know, consumer products and whatnot until sort of 23, 24, 25. So, you know, it takes a while to turn all that work on and to start to see the fruits of that labor. So continuing forward, we'll keep adding shows, be it partnership, service, IP. Currently we have a pretty healthy mix. And, again, start to see the real benefit of that investment in increased content in 23 and beyond.

Great. Thank you. I really appreciate the time. Great job. And thanks again.

Thank you for your interest and great questions.

Your next question comes from the line of David McFadgen with Cormac Securities.

Hi. A couple of questions. If I can just maybe ask you a question about your expectations for 2021. You said that you expect to record the same level or higher up growth that you experienced in 2020. And I was just wondering, is that for revenue or EBITDA, or is that for both?

That's for both, David.

Okay, excellent. And then just on the backlog, could you give us the breakdown between the two divisions, you know, kids and family and the scripted and non-scripted?

Hi, David. Yeah, go for it. Yeah, hi, David. We don't actually do that. We don't disclose that breakdown. Just as we don't, we see it more as, you know, production services versus IP. Just as we don't disclose animation versus factual divisions, we see them as all one company.

Okay. And then just a question on Stray. Obviously, this is a replacement for Kim's Convenience. I was just wondering, does it have the same or similar financial impact as Kim's Convenience?

I'd say extremely similar, if not slightly better.

Oh, okay, okay, excellent. Okay, yeah, I think that's about it. Most of the questions that I have were asked, so thank you.

Oh, thanks for your support, David.

And at this time, there are no further audio questions. This concludes our call today. If you have questions, please call. 1-604-683-3555 or email investors at thunderbird.tv. Thank you and have a good day.