UBC boosted by growth in IPTV
- Published: 23 July 2008 14:24
- Author: Rob Shepherd
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- Last Updated: 24 July 2008 11:13
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UBC Media has identified IPTV content as an alternative revenue stream after securing £130,000 of business in the first quarter of this year.
Chief executive Simon Cole said the promising performance had encouraged the company to focus more on online and IPTV content. "Radio indies are in a strong position to make IPTV and are arguably better at it than television indies," Cole told Broadcast.
"Such content requires skills we are used to - working in small teams and multitasking. TV indies don't really work like that."
Cole was unable to confirm projects in production, but said content was broad and ranged from advertising to music entertainment. "There is a lot of interest coming from IPTV now and our production arm is growing its slate. It has given us a great start for the coming financial year."
He confirmed that one client was US consumer giant Proctor & Gamble and said UBC planned to dedicate "more manpower" to IPTV in the future. Cole revealed the strategy as the radio services specialist reported revenues up 17.3% to £15.5m for the year end 31 March. The company made a gross profit of £3.7m, up 8.4%. However, it reported a pre-tax loss of £2.9m, due to the losses related to music service Cliq.
The performance was boosted by the sale of the Classic Gold digital network of stations which generated a profit on disposal of £3.54m.
UBC Media also landed a record commissioning slate from BBC Radio 4, as well as commissions from GMG, both of which ordered shows from production arm Unique Productions. Cole added that he was "very pleased" that significant commercial radio players such as GMG were "entering the commissioning arena" because it meant Unique would be less reliant on the BBC.
"There is increasing investment from commercial broadcasters and the launch of Channel 4 Radio is more good news."
Earlier this year, UBC Media announced it was to sell its commercial division to US company Global Traffic Network for £15m. This was followed by the closure of the Cliq mobile download service.
