AGM Statement and Trading Update (2778P)

TIDMCMCP

RNS Number : 2778P

Content Media Corporation PLC

30 September 2011

Content Media Corporation PLC

-- AGM Statement and Trading Update

Speaking at today's Annual General Meeting John Schmidt, the Chief Executive Officer of Content Media Corporation will update shareholders as follows:

"We are pleased to report increased revenue and earnings for the financial year ending 31 March 2011, and since our last release, trading has continued to meet management's expectations. The Company made significant progress on many fronts in the year ended 31 March 2011. We have grown our revenue in fiction and non-fiction television. Our digital division also grew and now represents some of the world's leading suppliers of digital entertainment. Our film division continued to register profits in a difficult environment for independent film and continues to represent some of the world's finest directors and producers. Our operating costs have remained stable and senior debt closed the year around 11% lower than the previous year. We also carried out a successful re-branding of the business.

In a difficult economic environment, we are pleased with these results. As disclosed in our Preliminary Statement, our results for this financial year will again be skewed towards the second half as most of our television programming will be delivered over that period. Similar to last year at this time, we have a reasonable amount of visibility into the second half and taking account of the ongoing challenging conditions, we are cautiously optimistic that we will again have a positive full year result.

Our television division has been performing admirably. The drama division has continued the positive trend from 2010 and is expected to grow further this year. Library sales have been pleasing, across both the wholly owned Fireworks library and the third party libraries and individual titles that have been acquired since 2005. In particular, we have seen a growth in activity in the US and other major territories with several larger deals currently being negotiated and expected to be concluded shortly. Revenues in our factual distribution division are up on last year, albeit on a comparatively smaller scale than our larger drama division.

As we mentioned in our recent Preliminary Statement, Collins Avenue - our US factual entertainment venture with Jeff Collins - has seen strong growth in recent months. It has now received four broadcast commissions since the beginning of the year encompassing 36 hours of production. These shows are for Lifetime, Animal Planet, National Geographic, and TLC. One of these shows - Dance Moms - has done well for Lifetime, with high ratings and an exceptional digital presence. Lifetime has recently announced an order for a further 13 hours of the show. We will continue to work with Jeff Collins and his team to build this company and capitalise on this early success.

The digital division continues to thrive and leads the market in the distribution of multi-platform programming. The division was recently cited by Broadcast magazine as the highest grossing company based on sales generated from new media and our early adoption in this area continues to pay dividends; particularly as our longstanding digital clients move their platforms aggressively across new territories. New multi-platform deliveries include Vuguru drama "The Millionaire Tour" and live action drama "Ark". Spirit digital media - our multi-platform production partnership with Peter Cowley - is still in its start-up phase but is delivering several exciting opportunities, alongside some regular consulting revenue streams and is integrating well with our other group divisions.

Our film division has had a mixed recent period in relation to new films it has taken to market and its full year result will depend on sales made at upcoming film markets. The division premiered three films at the Toronto International Film Festival - "Hick", "The Day", and "Sarah Palin - You Betcha" and has four films delivering before the financial year-end including "The Pact", "Hard Boiled Sweets", "Fastest" and "Outpost: Black Sun". We are also expecting a number of other films to go into production this autumn. The growing feature film library is performing well in terms of secondary TV and DVD markets and the increasing VOD and digital markets. These results should underpin a relatively stable overall result for the division.

We continue to be pleased with our investment in Phase 4 Films in which the Company owns a 25% stake. It is one of very few North American film distributors with a direct relationship with Wal-Mart in both the US and Canada, and it has recently completed the development of a comprehensive VOD platform in the US. Its comparatively low cost infrastructure and the benefits it accrues from distributing across North America, continue to enhance its performance. We believe it will grow and enhance profitably over the coming years.

As disclosed in our accounts, the interest rate on our loan facility has been predominantly fixed since 2008 but will revert to a floating rate this November. If floating interest rates remain at current predicted low levels, this will lower our annualised interest charge this year and into 2012.

Content has performed well in a tough market. We have a strong sales and distribution platform and a low risk production infrastructure that we will continue to build upon. We will focus on positive cash flows to lower our debt levels whilst we continue to look for strategic growth opportunities. Our ultimate goal in all these efforts is to increase shareholder value."

- Ends -

Enquiries:

 
 John Schmidt/Geoff Webb      www.contentfilm.com 
 ContentFilm PLC              Tel: 
                               020 7851 6500 
 Robert Emmet 
 Throgmorton Street Capital   Tel: [phone] 
 
 
 Philip Secrett/ Colin Aaronson /David 
  Hignell 
 Grant Thornton Corporate Finance        Tel: [phone] 
 
 
 

Content Media Corporation plc ("Content", formerly ContentFilm plc), is a publicly traded, global entertainment media company based in London with offices in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto, which owns and distributes a significant library of film, television and digital assets. Content Film, the film sales division, holds the rights to 200 titles and helps producers secure financing, marketing and distribution. The division also acquires top-tier documentaries. Content Television is the television sales division, which holds the library rights to 3,200 hours of TV programming and 300 hours of digital content. Content Digital licenses new and existing properties to digital media platforms worldwide, including on-demand, broadband and mobile. In addition, Content owns a significant stake in the following companies:

-- Phase 4 Films, a film and home video distributor in the United States and Canada, headquartered in Toronto and run by CEO, Berry Meyerowitz

-- Collins Avenue, a television production company based in Los Angeles and run by producer, Jeff Collins. Recent credits include "Fly Girls" on the CW network, and current productions include "Stuffed" for Animal Planet, "Dance Moms" for Lifetime and "Extreme Kids Parties" for TLC.

-- Spirit Digital Media, a digital studio established by Peter Cowley, former MD of Endemol UK Digital.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

MSCLMMRTMBIJMMB