DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. has been the corporate equivalent of a basket case over the last few years, as successive flops forced huge write-downs, 500 layoffs and the closure of its Redwood City campus. Surprise, surprise, investors weren’t pleased. They drove the stock down by a third last year – only to drive it back up more than 20 percent this year, with shares hitting a 52-week high of $29.75 earlier this month. The immediate reason? The strong performance of “Home,” the studio’s only release this year, which has brought in $367 million worldwide and outperformed analyst expectations. But for a studio that has cut back film production to just two releases annually, it’s the small and even smaller screens that are sustaining investor interest. The studio has put efforts toward releasing content for cable channel Nickelodeon, Internet streaming service Netflix Inc. and on its newly acquired YouTube channel AwesomenessTV. “They are providing a good platform for the company and the visibility is much more certain compared to feature films,” said Tuna Amobi, an equity analyst at S&P Capital IQ in New York. DreamWorks currently has seven series on Nickelodeon and Netflix and will debut another seven by the end of the year, said Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg during a February earnings call with analysts. Three of those series, including “Penguins of Madagascar” and “All Hail King Julien,” have won Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children’s Animated Program. “There are more kids watching Netflix today than any other platform in North America,” Katzenberg said. “It’s a powerful, powerful platform and launching on them is meaningful.” The total television division is forecast to bring in revenue of $200 million to $250 million this year, Katzenberg said during the call. Benjamin Mogil, an analyst in the Toronto office of Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Inc., a St. Louis-based financial firm, upgraded DreamWorks shares from “hold” to “buy” this month. In a report on June 4, Mogil forecast that television revenue would reach $250 million this year, and increase to $330 million by 2017. “The deals currently have new product delivered through 2017, with airing through 2019, but we would anticipate that these output deals likely get extended,” the report said. Executives from DreamWorks Animation and AwesomenessTV did not return calls for comment. Monetization challenges DreamWorks, founded about 20 years ago, had remarkable success for a time developing the “Shrek,” “Kung Fu Panda,” and “How to Train Your Dragon” franchises. But like all Hollywood studios, it is trying to figure how to succeed in a rapidly changing media world in which DVD sales are on the decline, the Web is ascendant and the best opportunities are likely abroad, as opposed to down the street. DreamWorks made an aggressive move in 2013 when it acquired Los Angeles-based AwesomenessTV for $33 million. It sold off a 25 percent stake to Hearst Corp. last year for $81 million as part of a deal that gave it access to Seventeen magazine content. Recent development with the network include AwestruckTV, a new network of scripted and unscripted original content aimed at mothers in the millennial generation; a channel of scripted and unscripted content for teens and young millennials on Verizon’s mobile streaming service; and a venture to make feature films distributed on YouTube starting this year. The online network also provides content for a live-action sketch show airing on Nickelodeon. In the conference call with analysts in February, Chief Finance Officer Fazal Merchant said the new media segment of the business that includes AwesomenessTV brought in revenue of $25 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $4 million in the same period a year earlier. “We … have a huge amount of confidence in that business, evidenced just the year-over-year performance and our view on its ability to continue on that track,” Merchant said. The report from Mogil at Stifel projected revenue from the new media business at $63.6 million this year, increasing to $105 million in 2017. Todd Supplee, senior director, entertainment, media & communications practice in the Los Angeles office of accounting and consulting firm PwC, called multi-channel networks a nascent industry that continues to present a challenge on how to monetize itself. “What you will see is (multi-channel networks) merge into identified channels as they find their place,” Supplee added. “But we don’t have a precise measurement on how big that market potential is.”