Zoo Digital Share Discussion Threads

[malandliz] 03/9/2020 09:41

I noticed 10 job vacancies on the website this morning, a number of which are temporary with the possibility of becoming permanant. It would appear business is going well and the ticker seems to be going at around a million a week or so.

[nicyts] 30/8/2020 10:19

I like the latest news on the website. Zoo are assisting Universities by providing their software for the teaching of dubbing etc.Long term play but shows intention of becoming the technology of choice by the industry. Also note job re data for machine learning. They are again collaborating this time with Sheffield University on this. The news flow as we move forward will be interesting.

[uknighted] 13/8/2020 15:07

We hereby advise you that the Notice of the Annual General Meeting and the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2020 are available on the Company’s website. Please note, the AGM will be held as a closed meeting on 23 September 2020 at 4pm at ZOO Digital Group plc, Floor 7, City Gate, 8 St Mary’s Gate, Sheffield, S1 4LW. We will be hosting a virtual meeting by video conference. If you would like to attend, please visit hxxps://www.zoodigital.com/agm-2020 to register.

[nicyts] 11/8/2020 12:51

Latest job on website this morning refers to a new project with a major client therefore provides some affirmation.

[nicyts] 11/8/2020 09:31

Ticker seems to be going well. Activity as you say is good but not sure what it means. Good take up of dubbing important.The key job I suspect is the account manager at Disney. Indicates a strengthening relationship. All indications are good. Just need confirmation are assumptions are correct.

[snoper] 11/8/2020 08:57

Anyone has an update on the ticker? Seems to be a lot of activity. In Europe, but especially in the "newer" regions US, South America and Asia.

Also it seems like Zoo is recruiting new localizers again. Bunch of new links on their linkedin profile, as well as 6 openings currently.

[snoper] 05/8/2020 16:04

Interesting market intel came out recently in Disney Q3 results:

Disney+ hitting 60m subscribers. Note this was 50m in april and 28m in february
Disney aiming to launch new OTC service in 2021 "Star", with already owned content from ABC Studios, Fox Television, FX, Freeform, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight. It will be integrated in the existing Disney+ channel
Note that earlier, Disney indicated they might provide their Hulu content outside of the US as well (35m subscribers in US)
Mulan premiering on Disney+, following a number of premier delays (covid-19 driven) -> price on top of monthly subscription fee and varying per region

Review the Q3 results. Clearly Disney+ is an extremely important strategic asset for Disney, especially under covid-19 circumstances with all other business units showing weak trading.

Zoo is one of 3 premier localization partners for Disney+, providing localization services and their ZooStudio is the platform of choice for Disney+. Also, just yesterday I saw a new opening at Zoo as account manager: "We are currently looking for an Account Manager that will be implanted within Fox/Disney Localization Teams." next to a number of other recent openings.

[plok] 24/7/2020 13:11

Just found this on thefly.com no other info. Zoo Digital Group initiated with a Buy at Stifel Stifel initiated coverage of Zoo Digital Group with a Buy rating and 112 GBp price target.Read more at: https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=3125523

[anothertim] 15/7/2020 08:40

I've also been a long term very small investor (I remember the stock merge many years ago!), and it's always been jam tomorrow. This is despite a slate of excellent tools and engineering staff.

I'm somewhat disappointed that they not been able to capitalise on the dubbing and subbing of back catalogue titles, as much as some on this board had hoped, to compensate for the pause on new titles.

Given the customer base, the excellent technology and the long history of the company very nearly making a sustained profit, I have to ask why the company hasn't quite managed to make that last step...

[uknighted] 14/7/2020 14:18

Rome was not built in a day? I’ve been invested here patiently for 10+ years and the jam still hasn’t materialised.

[plok] 14/7/2020 11:00

Considering the business disruption over the past 5 months I’m reasonably happy with the results. However growth in turnover has to be substantial this FY.
Absolutely no chance of a Nasdaq listing...way too small.

[nicyts] 14/7/2020 10:42

Website under investors then presentations has tonight's investor presentation slides. Shows major investors and a number appear to be US based. Their brokers have head office in the US,they report in dollars and have mainly US clients.I suspect majority of staff and work is in the States. US listing probably not relevant. They are clearly on the radar in the US.Note reference to research into machine based translation. That could be very interesting .Results very good in my view. Creating a leading and cutting edge company. Basically profitable and growing organically.What's not to like. Rome was not built in a day.

[shaker44] 14/7/2020 10:25

You make some good points veralamium (st Albans??!!) And particularly regarding Nasdaq. Maybe management is afraid that may flush out a bidder or maybe Nasdaq listing costs are prohibitive now. Hopefully they and their advisors have US listing under consideration.

[verulamium] 14/7/2020 09:21

"Burning cash" - looking after it quite well really, and the valuation doesn't look OTT looking at the Progressive research note. As the results point out, they include the worst bit of the pandemic, where everyone just slowed down, then shut down for a couple of weeks and wondered what on earth they were going to do. They don't include the recovery bit from April on.

Key stuff - "During the period, our largest subtitling customer in the prior year changed its strategy for procuring localisation services which resulted in a much reduced contribution from this customer in the year to March 2020. However, this was offset by 42% year-on-year growth in sales from other customers" with a similar impact in dubbing. Would this imply that Netflix now expect programmes to be delivered with subtitles provided and already dubbed rather than procuring it themselves? So it's a shift to smaller customers using Netflix preferred suppliers (a good thing, as they're then likely to use it for non-Netflix projects). So from the days where losing a major customer was a major risk that would have sent Zoo under, they've survived it with barely a blip.

Shame the loan notes had to be kicked down the road for another year, with their annual muddying of results with exchange rate and fair value issue.

ZooStudios being adopted by a major customer is a great sign - they don't have to push work Zoo's way because they're using this, but it integrates well and can only help.

Slightly worried that there was a productivity hit with the shift to working from home. I've been significantly more productive as a home worker (some of my colleagues haven't, but it's actually easier to see who's slacking now that presenteeism can't be made into a fine art). It must imply that they were running the office efficiently I suppose. Also surprsed that the margins are lower for dubbing when using a bricks and mortar studio rather than doing a job entirely remotely - surely you price the job accordingly?

Given how much of the revenue is from the US, makes you wonder why we're based and listed in the UK really. Their market cap would be massively higher with a US listing - jam tomorrow for tech stocks really isn't a problem over there.

[eezymunny] 14/7/2020 08:38

Burning cash as usual and on a bonkers high valuation. What's to like?

[verulamium] 14/7/2020 08:22

Beginning to agree. They'd might as well be a dubbing charity for the major studios at this rate, providing world beating localisation services but steadfastly refusing to make a profit while doing it.

[uknighted] 14/7/2020 08:11

Jam tomorrow as usual!

[snoper] 14/7/2020 08:10

"ZOO is already established as a preferred or primary vendor of subtitling services for a number of major buyers. We expect that we will achieve a similar status for dubbing services in due course."

[uknighted] 14/7/2020 07:12

Final results RNS

Stuart Green, CEO of ZOO Digital, commented,

"The financial year completed has been one of considerable progress, in which we continued to demonstrate growth against our key strategic priorities. We saw increasing traction within our customer base, ongoing positive structural changes within the OTT consumer video market and growing recognition of our cloud-based systems and services, which was accelerated by the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the final weeks of the year.

"Trading in the first three months of FY21 has been strong, with first quarter sales currently expected to be at least 15% ahead of the equivalent prior year period. This is also reflected in similar underlying growth in current order books for both localisation and digital packaging services.

"Through our membership of the Netflix Preferred Fulfilment Partner (NPFP) programme we have been adding new customers and strengthening our relationship with some existing ones. Additionally, we anticipate future growth driven by OTT country launches.

"Whilst it is not usual for buyers in our industry to commit to significant volumes of work in advance, the multiple significant media companies and digital distributors that now regularly use our services give us reason to expect that growth will continue throughout the year ahead.

"The market has shown considerable resilience during this challenging period and we are confident of continued momentum. We are satisfied we have enough visibility, and sufficient opportunities in our pipeline, to enable us to resume market forecasts, and look to the future with optimism."

[shaker44] 01/7/2020 02:37

8 new hires are a significant additional overhead, if not replacements. Hope the margins are good!

[martina pescatore] 30/6/2020 17:58

Interesting slater article on job indices in the translation industry

hxxps://slator.com/industry-news/slator-language-industry-job-index-falls-again-in-june-2020/

In the above article the link to the Article on the zoo Digital trading update takes you here

hxxps://slator.com/financial-results/media-localizer-zoo-sees-reassuring-resumption-in-demand/

In this article there is much talk about Disney+ and subtitling. Stuart Green says that whilst new production work has fallen away this has been replaced by back catalogue work, and clearly Disney + have a considerable back catalogue. Stuart also says that whilst they are doing dubbing work for existing and new clients, they are taking on very much more subtitling work.

As per my early post, zoo appear to be recruiting further for subtitling posts, so I gather that Zoo are continuing to be seeing strong demand for subtitling, and are busy elsewhere as quiet staff perhaps aren’t moving across!
NIA and DYOR

[martina pescatore] 30/6/2020 17:58

Duplicate post deleted.

[martina pescatore] 30/6/2020 07:44

Zoo seem to be keenly hiring again, there are eight vacancies on their website page, which has increased from two vacancies about a month ago. Bodes well IMO. Three of the new vacancies are subtitle related.

NIA and DYOR

[uknighted] 24/6/2020 12:03

RNS Results 14/07/20.

[nicyts] 20/6/2020 10:12

Times money today has article that refers to Zoo.Chap called Gervais Williams from Premier Milton Investors says excited about Zoo. Has holdings in his fund.May generate some interest.