|
Written by David Friend, THE CANADIAN PRESS
|
|
Thursday, 27 March 2008 |
Google Currency Converter
Related Items
No keywords found
TORONTO - Internet broadcaster JumpTV Inc. (TSX:JTV) is betting that its advertising sales division will help lift the company out of losses by the end of the year as popular sports events begin to ramp up and some existing ad clients make further commitments.
The company said Thursday its fourth-quarter revenue increased six-fold from a year earlier, but that net losses for the period were US$10.5 million or 21 cents per share. That compared with a year-ago loss of $8.7 million or 25 cents per share.
The increase in net loss stemmed from $3-million in non-cash expenses as well as about $400,000 in severance.
Fourth-quarter revenue was $4.8 million, up from $749,000, boosted by monthly, quarterly and annual subscriptions. Results were also helped by the August acquisition of the broadband network division of XOS Technologies.
The company had $51 million in cash and equivalents at Dec. 31.
"We are pleased to see our revenue and subscriber base continue to grow though we recognize that the loss levels are not sustainable," stated CEO Jordan Banks in a release.
"To that end, we developed an eight point strategic plan announced Feb. 14, which we are confident will lead the JumpTV to cash breakeven by year end."
JumpTV has been beefing up its advertising sales team in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, and so far this year booked over $1 million in advertising sales.
Recent data from Internet marketing research firm ComScore ranks JumpTV as the No. 3 sports website based on the total number of minutes viewed - behind the ESPN and NFL sites.
"Being in the Top 10 is the kind of thing that makes opening the advertiser doors much easier," said executive chairman Scott Paterson in a conference call.
The company hopes to use the hook this year as a way to convince advertisers to hop on board.
"We expect to see the fruits of our labours come into play around many of the major properties we have - both World Cup qualifiers as well as the collegiate properties - in Q3 and Q4," said Nada Usina to president of JumpTV Inc.
She said some major advertisers are starting to return for a second round of ad buys.
"What we're seeing in general is both an excitement and immediate connection with advertisers... around the quality of content we have, in many cases around the exclusivity of content we have," she said.
Niche ethnic markets are also expected to be a boon for the company, particularly Hispanic viewers which the company has said make up a third of its subscribers. About 60 per cent of them were located in the United States.
There's "quite a bit of excitement as we still have a stronghold in terms of what content we have
to offer, from both Hispanic international content as well as sports content," Usina said.
JumpTV also plans to revamp the media player it uses to stream channels over the Internet. The new interface will be designed to boost the ad impressions as well as increase interactivity through easier to use viewer forums and chat rooms.
The content provider is reducing costs by ditching less popular channels in countries where the subscriber interest is low. So far it has pulled about 50 stations from its offerings while another 45 channels will disappear in the near future.
"Our view was that they're not commercially viable right now," said Paterson. "They're right across the board, there's no region in particular" that we're targeting.
Revenue for the year ended Dec. 31 was $8.97 million, up from $2.1 million in 2006.
The company widened the annual loss to $30.6 million, 66 cents per share, from $25.6 million, 99 cents per share, a year earlier.
JumpTV had approximately 92,000 subscriptions at Dec. 31, compared to 28,138 at the end of the previous year.
On the TSX Thursday afternoon, JumpTV shares were trading at 66 cents, down four cents or almost six per cent.
 |
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 October 2008 )
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed
