The Great Courses

What The Great Courses does

The Great Courses is the consumer-facing brand of The Teaching Company Sales, LLC, a privately held for-profit LLC founded in 1990 and headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia. It operates a direct-to-consumer online learning platform that delivers college-level, professor-taught courses on a subscription and à la carte basis to adult lifelong learners seeking personal enrichment, professional development, and hobby exploration. The platform's content base spans over 20,000 lectures across subjects including science, history, philosophy, literature, business, health, travel, music, and mathematics, with new courses and digitally remastered classics added monthly.

The product surface is organized into four tiered subscription services (Plus as the flagship all-access tier with 20,000+ lectures, plus Signature Collection, Living, and Classics as curated sub-brands) and a separate Shop storefront selling individual courses at $35 or less. Delivery is via streaming video through six owned web properties and native apps across iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV, with infrastructure hosted on AWS. Customer acquisition is product-led and direct-to-consumer, combining free trials, limited-time promotional pricing (e.g., $4.99/month for Plus, $0.99/month for Classics for the first two months), gift-code redemption, paid digital advertising, email, organic social, and SEO.

The business is privately held with no disclosed parent company, institutional investors, or funding rounds. The most recent material operational move is a 2025 consolidation of multiple legacy websites and apps into a single unified platform. No AI capabilities, proprietary data flywheel, M&A activity, partnerships, patents, awards, or management-team disclosures are present in the source data.

Name

The Great Courses

Legal name

The Teaching Company Sales, LLC

Website

https://thegreatcourses.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1990

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

The Great Courses is the consumer brand of The Teaching Company Sales, LLC, a privately held Virginia LLC founded in 1990 that streams college-level, professor-taught courses via subscription and à la carte sales to adult lifelong learners across web, mobile, and connected-TV platforms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online Education and Lifelong Learning Streaming

NAICS

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (6113), Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (61131)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Online Learning Content & Course Publishing Platforms (BPAMAJAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Course Bundle Subscriptions & Learning Membership Marketplaces (EDAFAIAI), Higher Education Digital Courseware & Modules (EDAGAEAB)

Keywords

• Online learning platform
• Educational streaming services
• Subscription video lectures
• Lifelong learning content
• College level courses

Headquarters

HQ city

Chantilly

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Subscription Services: Recurring subscription revenue from multiple tiers (Plus, Signature Collection, Living, Classics) with monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual billing cycles. Subscribers get unlimited access to curated lecture libraries with new content added monthly.
2. Individual Course Sales: One-time purchase revenue from individual courses sold through the Shop platform. Courses are priced at $35 or less and are available for streaming with optional digital transcripts. Refunds available within 30 days of purchase.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Great Courses is a direct-to-consumer online education service that streams college-level video lectures produced with professors and subject-matter experts to individual learners. Its catalog of more than 20,000 lectures is delivered through four subscription tiers (Plus, Signature Collection, Living, and Classics) and an à la carte Shop for permanent individual course purchases, accessible via web, mobile, and connected-TV apps.

Product overview

The Great Courses is an online learning platform operated by The Teaching Company Sales, LLC, offering college-level courses taught by expert professors. The platform operates as a unified ecosystem with multiple subscription services (The Great Courses Plus, Signature Collection, Living, and Classics) and an individual course shop. The Great Courses Plus serves as the flagship all-access subscription with over 20,000 lectures, while the Signature Collection (7,500+ lectures), Classics (5,500+ lectures), and Living (4,500+ lectures) offer curated subsets focused on science/history/philosophy, foundational classics, and lifestyle topics respectively. Users can subscribe to individual services or purchase courses à la carte through the Shop. Content spans subjects including science, history, mathematics, philosophy, literature, art, business, health, languages, music, and professional development, delivered via streaming video across web, mobile apps, and connected TV platforms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Great Courses Plus: Premier subscription service offering access to over 20,000 lectures across all subjects including science, history, philosophy, religion, travel, and professional growth. Provides unlimited streaming access to the complete course library.
• The Great Courses Signature Collection
• The Great Courses Living
• The Great Courses Classics

Products and services

• The Great Courses Plus Subscription streaming service giving unlimited access to over 20,000 college-level lectures across all subject areas for individual adult learners seeking lifelong learning.
• The Great Courses Signature Collection Subscription streaming service offering access to over 7,500 lectures in history, science, mathematics, philosophy, religion, literature, and travel for individual adult learners.
• The Great Courses Living Subscription streaming service offering access to over 4,500 lectures focused on health and wellness, hobbies, professional and personal growth, and travel for individual adult learners.
• The Great Courses Classics Curated subscription streaming service offering access to over 5,500 lectures drawn from the earliest years of The Great Courses, covering foundational topics in history, science, math, philosophy, and literature for individual adult learners.
• The Great Courses Shop E-commerce storefront for purchasing individual courses that users own permanently, with courses priced at $35 or less and available across subjects including art, science, history, languages, and professional skills for individual adult learners and gift buyers.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• MasterClass: MasterClass is a premium subscription streaming platform featuring courses taught by world-renowned experts. It is the most direct competitor to The Great Courses in the high-quality, expert-led lifelong learning subscription space, targeting similar adult learners seeking college-level content.
• Wondrium: Wondrium is the streaming service operated by the same parent company (The Teaching Company) as The Great Courses, offering a parallel catalog of lifelong learning content. The relationship suggests a portfolio brand strategy within the same corporate entity rather than independent competition.
• Curiosity Stream: Curiosity Stream is a subscription streaming service offering documentary and educational nonfiction content. It targets a similar intellectually curious adult audience as The Great Courses and competes for the same "edutainment" subscription wallet share.
• CreativeLive: CreativeLive offers live and on-demand classes in creative fields like photography, design, and entrepreneurship. It competes with The Great Courses in the creative skills and hobby learning categories, particularly overlapping with The Great Courses Living content.

Broad incumbents

• Coursera: Coursera partners with top universities to offer online courses, certificates, and degrees. While it leans toward credentialed/academic outcomes rather than pure enrichment, it overlaps with The Great Courses in the college-level learning content category for adult learners.
• The Great Courses Plus / Skillshare: Skillshare is a subscription learning platform focused on creative and professional skills taught by practitioners. It competes for the same discretionary learning dollars as The Great Courses, though with shorter, project-based classes rather than full lecture series.
• LinkedIn Learning: LinkedIn Learning offers video courses on business, technology, and creative skills, integrated with LinkedIn's professional network. It is a broad incumbent in the online professional learning space and overlaps with The Great Courses' professional growth and business content offerings.
• Udemy: Udemy operates a massive marketplace of courses created by individual instructors across virtually every subject. While more fragmented and creator-led, it competes with The Great Courses' Shop for one-time course purchases in subjects like business, languages, and professional development.
• edX: edX, founded by Harvard and MIT, offers university-level courses and degree programs. It overlaps with The Great Courses in college-level content delivery but emphasizes accredited credentials and free audit options, competing on price and credibility.

Emerging players

• Khan Academy: Khan Academy provides free, high-quality educational content across many subjects. While primarily K-12 focused, its expansion into adult learning and college-level prep overlaps with The Great Courses' mission, offering a free alternative that could constrain pricing power.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/thegreatcourses
• YouTubeyoutube.com/thegreatcourses
• Facebookfacebook.com/thegreatcourses
• Instagraminstagram.com/thegreatcourses

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Great Courses