Trading Statement

Zoo Digital Group PLC 18 February 2005 18 February 2005 ZOO DIGITAL GROUP PLC ('ZOO' or 'the Group') UPDATE ON TRADING ZOO Digital Group plc ('ZOO' or 'the Group'), premier provider of tools for the production of interactive DVD-Video content, today announces a trading update and overview of current business activities. HIGHLIGHTS • ZOOtech expected to achieve £500,000 of revenue by year end • ZOO Digital Publishing set to approximately double turnover to £11m by year end • Software testing on 'Regionalisation' successfully completed with major Hollywood Studio with expected revenues of $1 million • Further Interactive DVD Products agreed with Universal Pictures • Agreement reached with Noviy Disk for supply of ZOO's gaming products in Russia and ex-Soviet Union to a minimum value of $2million over the next 12 months • Delayed income on ZOOtech and deferred income on the 'Crimelife' development project will lead to Final Results for period to 31 March 2005 being below Board expectations Ian Stewart, Chief Executive of ZOO Digital Group PLC commented: 'We are more confident about the prospects of this business than ever before, however this year's revenues will fall below the Board's expectations. Although short term revenues and profits have fallen behind what we were expecting to achieve the medium to long term prospects for the Group are better than we envisaged and much of the shortfall in revenues has not been lost but simply deferred into the new financial year. Both ZOOtech and Zoo Digital Publishing have progressed well over the last 12 months and we have made a number of breakthroughs in both technological and market terms. Our technology is now starting to be well used and we are in advanced discussions with many leading corporates in many market sectors. The Board believes that the prospects for ZOO remain excellent.' Enquiries Ian Stewart James Chandler/Grace Marriner CEO, ZOO Digital Group plc Beattie Financial 0114 241 3700 020 7398 3300 John Llewellyn-Lloyd Noble & Company Limited 020 7763 2200 ZOOtech LTD ZOOtech focuses on R&D and licensing of DVD-EXTRA, the Group's highly original development software capable of creating complex interactive content for standard DVD players. The strategy for ZOOtech is simple; to create the industry standard tool for the production of interactive DVD content and drive revenues through licensing worldwide in a combination of up front fees and royalties. Current Trading Since the launch of DVD-EXTRA STUDIO in Q2 2004 considerable progress has been made with a number of third parties already developing commercial titles using the product. Total sales for the 15 month Financial Period to 31 March 2005 for ZOOtech Ltd are likely to be in the order of £500,000. Over 60% of this is from royalty based revenues and the balance from software sales, one off project fees and training income. Entertainment titles produced pre-Christmas by third parties using DVD-EXTRA STUDIO included: * Three titles by Ouat Entertainment published in France by Universal Pictures * A top selling interactive DVD 'Beat the Intro' published by VCI in the UK that was developed by Somethin' Else * Bonus features on a number of DVD titles including 'Garfield The Movie' published by Fox * The successful production of two marketing DVDs by Freestyle New Media for Land Rover * Two children's educational products were released by Leapfrog in the US. ZOOtech's work with a number of Hollywood Studios has progressed well. Detailed and positive discussions continue with a particular interest expressed in the significant time and cost savings that can be achieved using DVD-EXTRA STUDIO as well as in the opportunity to produce more engaging interactive features. Rigorous testing of our 'Regionalization' software in conjunction with one studio has been successfully completed on criteria selected by the studios and is in advanced stages of testing with a second studio, and ZOOtech is currently working on the integration of the software into the wider DVD production process. We are in final contract negotiations with one particular studio from which we would anticipate initial revenues of around $1 million. However, the timescale between testing and revenue generation has been longer than we originally anticipated and revenues from the Hollywood Studios are expected to commence in the next financial year rather than the year to 31 March 2005. Consequently this delay in revenues will impact profitability in the current financial year. Entertainment Market Activity The momentum and desire, across many markets, for interactive DVD has notably increased. ZOO is in discussions with numerous organisations regarding anticipated products for 2005 and 2006. In entertainment we are working closely with several companies on products and roadmaps for iDVD games. These include 'Snap TV' with two major trivia games and the French game company Microids has signed a license agreement to produce a major adventure game, expected to be launched by the end of 2005. Over the last six months ZOO has been working closely with a major toy company in the US to evaluate various properties for interactive DVD using our software. Following the three titles already produced, Ouat Entertainment is developing between four and six products for 2005. After VCI's successful publication of the 'Manchester United Official Interactive DVD', we are aware of plans by other publishers to produce interactive DVDs based on four other major British football clubs and at least two European clubs. Education Market Activity In education Generation 5, a leading French publisher of educational media, has acquired a DVD-EXTRA STUDIO licence and is looking to publish a number of its existing titles on interactive DVD during 2005. The four major US publishers of educational content are evaluating a number of products for interactive DVD and several other organisations have commenced evaluations of projects using our technology. Detail Technologies are producing its police training software on interactive DVD and also using ZOOtech's unique 'access control' feature to prevent unauthorised use of the product. Corporate Market Activity In the corporate market Freestyle New Media Group, a leading new media marketing agency has selected DVD-EXTRA STUDIO as the cornerstone of a new service promoting the use of interactive DVD as a marketing communications channel. Following the success of two initial products for Land Rover, Freestyle has indicated that two further DVD products will be produced and discussions have also begun with other major motor manufacturers with regard to the production of interactive marketing DVDs. One of our newest licensees, Georgopolis, is looking to produce marketing products for two car manufacturers in the US and ZOO expects to increasingly focus on the US corporate market during 2005. Hollywood Studio Market Activity As detailed above ZOO is continuing its work on the 'regionalisation' of menus. One major studio has asked ZOOtech to assist in defining and deploying a new production process based on our technologies, and one of our application engineers has been seconded for a number of months. Consequently we fully expect revenues from our regionalisation of menus to commence during the first quarter of the next financial year and to be in the order of $1million for the full year from this one studio. We are in the final stages of testing and evaluation of regionalisation with another major studio and expect to conclude this satisfactorily by end of March 2005. Once implemented, we will direct our resources to other major process improvements such as the automated production of subtitles, which has been requested by the studios. ZOO has also been commissioned by another major studio to produce a unique feature for its film DVDs and we have produced concepts and demos that have been very well received. This particular studio has further commissioned ZOOtech on a funded basis to complete the next stage of development involving a series of compatibility tests which will take up to three months. Next Generation DVD We have been a member of the DVD Forum, the group responsible for creating and developing the DVD formats, since 2002 and have been participating with the working group defining HD-DVD-Video, the next generation format for delivery of high definition video using blue laser technology. In addition, in 2004 ZOOtech joined the recently formed Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), responsible for developing a competing format (Blu-ray Disc), and we are active within this group. Our participation as contributing members of the DVD Forum and the BDA ensures that we are at the forefront of the development of next generation formats. We are working to establish ourselves as a leading provider of tools for these new platforms by enhancing DVD-EXTRA STUDIO to deliver a single tool capable of generating output for all video formats (standard definition DVD-Video, HD-DVD-Video and BD-Video). We have been approached by major US based DVD compression and authoring facilities with regard to development of next generation tools and we are actively considering a number of collaborative partners in order to part fund and also accelerate our development of this capability for the professional authoring market. In short, the evolution of DVD technology into a higher definition format presents ZOO with further commercial opportunities and will have little or no negative impact on our progress moving forward. Patents Our key patent application for the authoring of complex DVD products has now been successfully granted in the UK and is pending in seven other territories. We have continued to invest in our patent portfolio with 55 patents now pending covering 22 patent families in the major territories and under the International Patent Convention. ZOO DIGITAL PUBLISHING LTD ('ZDP') ZDP focuses on the publishing and distribution of interactive entertainment products across multiple platforms such as interactive DVD, PS2, Xbox, GBA and PC. Current Trading The plan to focus ZDP on two key areas of activity; DVD Production and Games Publishing, has delivered good results. Despite the publicised difficulties that have frustrated the games and video sectors during Q4, both areas are progressing in line with overall plans and we anticipate continued growth. The worldwide shortages of Playstation 2 and Xbox hardware throughout the Christmas period impacted some of our major customers including Game Group. However we have worked successfully with our major customers to re-schedule a number of our pre Christmas releases into our final quarter and maintain sales. The difficult trading conditions in the European games market compromised the performance of our Premier Manager product on PS2 and Guinness World Records Interactive-DVD under performed, although both products were profitable. However, we saw good performances of our other interactive DVD titles and general catalogue. In particular, our Gameboy Advance range was very strong and a number of titles sold very well including Sim City, Need for Speed, Ms PacMan, Payback, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 2 and Monopoly. Christmas 2004 demonstrated the growing demand for Interactive-DVD content and whilst the UK continues to lead the world for 'special interest' content, Interactive-DVD has now been successfully launched in eight further territories. 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' reached No. 16 in the UK DVD chart and the title has now shipped approximately one million units across Europe. Konami have extended the publishing of the Crimelife title we are developing into the North American market with the consequence of sacrificing expected licensing revenues this year in order to facilitate the potential for a far more lucrative royalty stream next year. We continue to expect ZDP to be in a profitable position over the 15-month period to 31March 2005 with turnover in line, but net profit below the Board's expectations. DVD Production Following the success of the 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' Interactive-DVD, Universal Pictures has committed to extend its leadership in this new entertainment category with a range of new titles developed by ZDP for 2005. Consequently, we expect an e international rollout of our newest version of 'Millionaire' in 2005. With the support of Celador International and Universal Pictures, this will be the first interactive 'Millionaire' product to offer greater functionality than the TV show. We are in advanced discussions to acquire further licenses of similar stature for publication in 2005 and are looking to extend our dominant position in interactive DVD through increasing our presence in many key territories, adding new publishers to our roster and announcing a significant number of major new titles. Games Publishing Our portfolio of licenses in Games Publishing continues to strengthen, including our first titles for the new Nintendo DS. Products for release in February 2005 and March 2005 include Psi-Ops on PC, Guilty Gear on PS2/Xbox and Sudeki on PC. We are also very pleased to confirm the release of the much-awaited Alien Hominid on PS2 and Xbox in May 2005. These titles demonstrate our ongoing strategy to improve the quality of titles and in turn have helped strengthen our distribution channels in a number of territories. We have concluded an output agreement with Noviy Disk for Russia and ex-Soviet territories for the supply of our products to a minimum value of $2million over the next 12 months and have also reached agreement with Consult DVD for the publishing and distribution of our range in the Benelux region. In addition, our whole catalogue is now on sale in Germany through Midway Games and we also expect to see a significant increase in the amount of products to be placed in the Australian market during 2005 through our relationship with Pier 57. The development project with Konami for 'Crimelife: Gang Wars', the eagerly anticipated title continues to build momentum and is in the final stages of completion with all milestones having been met to date. It is expected to be published by Konami in the Autumn of 2005 on PS2/Xbox and PC, allowing us to participate in a royalty revenue stream in the year to 31 March 2006. SUMMARY Both business units have progressed enormously over the past 12 months and, whilst the delays in revenues from the Hollywood segment have impacted profits for the financial period to 31 March 2005, it is now a major breakthrough for us to be working closely with one of the world's major studios ensuring the inclusion of DVD-EXTRA in their future plans. Our technology for the regionalisation of menus is being warmly received and is likely to generate good revenues in the year to 31 March 2006. A number of interactive DVD products are already being produced by third parties for publishing during 2005 and we expect to see our royalty revenue stream growing at an increasing pace. ZOO Digital Publishing Ltd will have at least doubled its turnover from the previous year and has moved into profit, forming a solid core of revenues from licensing and publishing games together with establishing itself as the leading player in the fast growing area of Interactive DVD. Universal's recent commitment to working with ZOO on extending its range of Interactive DVD products for 2005 and beyond underlines the huge potential of this market place. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
UK 100

Latest directors dealings