Archive for the ‘Broadcast technology vendor financials’ Category

Devoncroft Digest — July 30, 2010 – Earnings Season Continues, Grass Valley Finds a Buyer, More Broadcast Industry M&A, Harris Creates New Division, Elemental and Envivio Close Funding Rounds

Broadcast technology vendor financials, Devoncroft Digest, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jul 30 2010

The Devoncroft Digest provides an overview of and insight into industry news items that I think might be interesting / important for readers and clients. 

Here are a few of the things that have caught my eye this week.

Earnings Season Continues

A number of broadcasters, TV platform operators and broadcast technology vendors announced their earnings this week. With one or two exceptions the results were generally positive.

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Broadcast Technology Vendor Earnings

Harmonic posted strong Q2 results.  The company’s revenue was up 18% versus the same period last year, and up 13% versus the previous quarter.  More importantly, the company’s net income of the quarter was $4.4m vs. a loss of $7.9m during the same period last year.

On the company’s earnings conference call and slide presentation Harmonic executives also discussed the pending acquisition of video server company Omneon, and provided a bit more information on Omneon’s business.  Omneon recorded bookings of $57.8m during the first half of 2010, a 19% y/y increase.  For the full year, Omneon is expected to have revenues of $120-$125m, with (non-GAAP) gross margins of 57-57% and (non-GAAP) operating margins of 6-7%.

The market seemed to like what Harmonic had to say.  On the day after the earnings announcement, Harmonic shares were up by almost 17%.

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Technicolor announced its results for the first half of 2010 this week, which saw revenues decline 18.5% versus the previous year.  The company achieved EBIT of €15m from “continuing operations,” but recorded an EBIT Loss of €109m from “discontinued operations.”  The company attributed this EBIT loss “mostly to Grass Valley,” which found a buyer this week after being for sale for more than a year (more on that below).  More information about Technicolor can be found in the slide presentation that the company used during its analyst earnings conference call. 

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Belden issued strong numbers for Q2, beating the expectation of equity analysts.  Driven by strong results from the Americas (which were up 27% y/y), the company’s revenues rose 24% versus the same period a year ago, and 6% versus the previous quarter.    The company issued an upbeat forecast and raised its guidance for the future.

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Audio (and now video) specialist Dolby Labs delivered strong results for its 3rd quarter.  The company’s revenues rose 34% versus the same period last year, and its net income increased by 25% versus Q3 2009.  Dolby which has been pushing aggressively into the 3D and Digital Cinema markets, recorded a non-cash impairment charge of $9.6 million in cost of revenue related to digital cinema systems provided under operating leases to exhibitors.

Separately, Dolby announced an additional $300m for its stock repurchase program, which has the objective of offsetting dilution from the company’s equity compensation programs.

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Cable technology vendor ARRIS announced its preliminary Q2 Results.  The company’s revenues were up slightly, but its net income and gross margins were both down.  Investors were unhappy with these results and sent the company’s shares down sharply.

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Leading set-top box vendor Pace announced strong results for the first half of 2010.  For the first six months of the year the company’s revenues rose by 21% and profit jumped by 46% versus the same period in 2009.  Separately, the company announced its intention to acquire 2Wire (see below).

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Broadcaster & Platform Operator Earnings

European satellite operator Eutelsat announced this week that it achieved a record year, and that its revenue and EBITDA growth both exceeded 11% versus 2009.  The company’s earnings press release that it now delivers 3,662 broadcast TV Channels, and that the number of HDTV channels had grown by 80% during 2010.

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Belo, one of the largest pure-play TV broadcasters in the US delivered strong results for its second quarter of 2010.  The company’s revenue for Q2 was up by 13% versus 2009, and its net income almost doubled.  Significantly the company’s revenue from the automobile sector was up by 51% and its digital (website) revenues grew by 14%. 

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US cable operator Comcast reported that its revenues increased by 6.1% in its second quarter of 2010/  The company’s operating income and cash flow were both up, but it lost 256,000 basic video subscribers.  The company, which is currently seeking approval to purchase NBC-Universal, disclosed that it spent a total of $59m on the deal during the quarter

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UK-based Virgin Media delivered strong results for its second quarter.  The company’s revenue, operating income and cash flow all increased. 

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Broadcast Industry M&A Continues

Multiple broadcast technology M&A deals were announced today:

  • Grass Valley is to be acquired by Francisco Partners, a private equity firm
  • Ross Video is buying Codan
  • Pace announced  proposed their acquisition of 2Wire

 

Francisco Partners has made a binding offer to buy 100% of the shares in Grass Valley. 

After more than a year on the block, and several rumored bids, Technicolor appears to have found a buyer for Grass Valley – a Private Equity firm called Francisco Partners.    According to Technicolor CFO Stephane Rougeot “This binding offer is a key step in the largest of the disposals we decided to make as part of the strategic refocus of our activity portfolio. This will clarify and solidify our financial profile. This is also positive news for Grass Valley Broadcast employees and customers who will benefit from the engagement of a new shareholder recognized as a leader in technology-based businesses.”

Francisco is buying all of Grass Valley, except for the transmission business, which is being retained by Technicolor.

Technicolor certainly did not get rich from this deal.  It paid $172m for Grass Valley in 2002, and then acquiring multiple companies (including Canopus for more than $100m) over the past few years, the company has now struck a deal with Francisco Partners which according to a Technicolor press release values Grass Valley at $100m.

After reviewing the structure of the deal, one industry insider told me that Grass Valley was sold at what one industry insider described to me a “fire sale.”  In fact it appears that no money will change hands, and that Technicolor will actually pay €20m to Grass Valley in order to fund “ongoing management of the activity.”

For its part, Francisco Partners will sign an $80m IOU, which carries capitalized interest of 5% per year.  This means that Francisco will not pay anything for Grass Valley for at least five years, and that Technicolor will make a large cash injection into the company to keep it going. 

Clearly Technicolor wanted to get rid of Grass Valley and its associated losses so it can focus on its now core business activities.  The only silver lining for Technicolor is that it has the right to “receive additional consideration from the buyer based on the potential future remuneration of the new owners of the disposed entity.”

Grass Valley announced the deal in a press release and a letter to customers.    The company has set up a deal-oriented website where information about the transaction has been published, and has also created an “Ask Jeff.” (as in Jeff Rosica, head of the Grass Valley Broadcast & Professional business) email address where questions about the deal can be sent directly to the company. According to Rosica, who was interviewed by industry website TVNewsCheck, it’s Business As Usual At Grass Valley.

Grass Valley is one of the industry’s great companies and I am sure that the people there are happy to finally have resolved their fate.  Let’s hope they can now focus on making great products – and of course money for their new owners.

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Ross Video Acquires Codan

Ross Video, which is best known for its production switchers and newsroom automation systems, announced that has it entered into a letter of intent to buy 100% of the shares of Codan Broadcast Products Pty Ltd. The sale, subject only to the finalization of due diligence, is scheduled for completion on 31 August, 2010.  The deal will expand the Ross portfolio by adding Codan’s product range of routing switchers, signal processing and audio monitoring.  It also strengthens Ross Video’s foothold in the important Australian broadcast market. This is the second Ross acquisition in the past two years. In 2009 Ross purchased Dutch graphics firm Media Refinery.  

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Pace to Acquire 2Wire

Leading set-top box vendor Pace plc announced its proposed $475m acquisition of 2Wire, a provider of residential gateways and associated software for the broadband service provider market.  According to the press release, 2Wire has established customer relationships in the tier one telco market, including AT&T, which has been a customer of 2Wire for 10 years and uses 2Wire solutions in its U-Verse platform.  2Wire is currently owned by a consortium including Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Telmex, and Oak Investment Partners.

Pace says that following the completion of the acquisition it will be the number one provider of telco residential gateway devices in the US and the number three globally.

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3D News – RealD Insiders Cash in on IPO

The Wall Street Journal reports that following on from their successful IPO, insiders at 3D firm RealD Insiders Made More Money in IPO than Company Did.  A skeptical Wall Street equity analyst is quoted in the article as saying that the only reason for the IPO was to generate liquidity for investors.

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Other Broadcast Technology Vendor News

Harris Creates New Division, Names Means GM

The changes continue at the broadcast communications division of Harris.  The company announced this week that it has created a new “Workflow, Infrastructure & Networking” (WIN) business unit, and named newly hired Doug Means as its General Manager.  According to the company’s press release, Means will lead the newly formed WIN business unit, which encompasses the Harris Broadcast infrastructure, networking, server, automation and asset management product portfolios. WIN was formed as part of an overall strategy to create scale, reduce organizational complexity and deliver more interoperable solutions to address the continually changing needs of Harris Broadcast customers.

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Evertz Lands Big International Order

Canadian infrastructure vendor Evertz, which prides itself on not doing marketing, took the unusual step of issuing a short press release to announce the fact that the company has received orders in excess of C$7m from an unnamed international customer.   

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Elemental Closes $7.5m Funding Round

Video transcoding firm Elemental Technologies, which uses GPU processing announced that it has closed a $7.5 funding round.  The company says it intends to use the capital to expand its business in the United States and internationally.  While this is a good result for Elemental, it appears the company did not fully achieve its goals with this round.  According to an SEC filing, the company had hoped to raise $9m, but it looks like it fell short of that goal.  Transcoding is a tough business as evidenced by the recent sale of Ripcode (who had raised considerable financing) to RBG.  Perhaps Elemental’s unique GPU-based approach will enable the company to thrive – it gets pretty good reviews from broadcasters according to an article about Pitch Blue which appeared in Broadcasting & Cable magazine this week.

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Envivio Raises $15m

GigaOm property NewTeeVee reported this week that Envivio, another player in the video encoding / transcoding space,  has secured $15m in additional funding and shaken up its management team. 

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Other Platform Operator News

Ascent Media Hires 3 New VPs

Ascent Media has appointed three new vice-presidents for its media and digital services operations in Burbank, CA. 

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MobileTV News

The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article about the state of the mobileTV market in the USA, which discusses Qualcomm’s Plans for FLO TV, the US broadcaster-backed Open Mobile Video Coalition and mobileTV operator MobiTV.  The WSJ’s finding?  The picture for mobile TV in the US is “fuzzy.”

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Other News

Broadcasting & Cable magazine’s Glen Dickson wrote an interesting article about the new HD file delivery platforms that are being rolled out by Ascent Media and DG FastChannel. 

According to B&C, Pitch Blue, the new HD file delivery platform from Ascent Media and CBS is now delivering HD content to 1,350 US TV stations, while the new system from DG FastChannel has been deployed in 500 US TV stations.  The B&C article also highlights the need for transcoding systems in TV stations to convert these HD file to house formats.  As mentioned above, Elemental gets a good review from stations.    

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Market Research Note of the Week: Reliability Rankings of Broadcast Technology Vendors — The Top 30 Globally

Broadcast technology products are purchased by discerning customers for what are often mission-critical applications. Thus, the reliability of products is a paramount concern for buyers of these products.

To measure the rankings of the reliability of vendors, respondents were asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “reliability” on a 10-point scale, with 10 being best in the market and one being worst in the market. The top 30 ranked brands are shown in the graph for the global sample of all respondents. There are a wide variety of vendors on this list, including large and small companies and those who produce audio and video products.

When reviewing these results it’s important to understand how many products are produced by each vendor on this list. This will help us to understand if reliability comes from small, focused companies or large, multiproduct vendors.

The 2010 BBS evaluated 27 separate product categories. As with the previously published top 30 quality rankings, single-product companies (those who were covered on only one product category in the 2010 BBS) dominate the rankings for reliability.

To read the full article, including a breakdown and analysis of the findings, click here.

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Devoncroft Digest July 24, 2010 – Earnings Season Begins, More Broadcast M+A (and an IPO), Echolab Rumors

Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Broadcast technology vendor financials, Devoncroft Digest, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jul 24 2010

The Devoncroft Digest is a semi-regular amalgamation of news items I’ve seen recently.  Here are a few of the things that have caught my eye recently.

Earnings Season Kicks Off for Broadcasters and Broadcast Tech Vendors:

Quarterly earnings are starting to roll in from both broadcasters and broadcast technology vendors.  For those who are on an annual fiscal year, it’s a chance to see how the first half of the year went, and to hear management thoughts on the second half of 2010.

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Broadcast Technology Vendor Earnings:

Avid reported their numbers for the second quarter. Sales for the quarter were $162.2m, an 8% y/y increase – and the company pointed out that this was the first quarter of y/y growth for both audio and video since 1997.  The company’s shares jumped on the news.

While discussing uses of cash on the company’s earnings call, Avid executives talked about the amount of cash used for the Euphonix acquisition.  I was not aware of the purchase price for Euphonix, but it turns out that according to an SEC filing, Avid paid 17.6m for Euphonix, including cash of $12.6m and cash of $5m.

For more on Avid’s results, here’s a link to a transcript of Avid’s Q2 earnings call, and an article from Barrons about the results.   

Speaking of Avid, Post Magazine’s Jonathan Moser recently published an interesting Q&A with Avid COO Kirk Arnold about present & future status of the company.  In my opinion, both Arnold and CEO Gary Greenfield have done a good job recently with this type of interview.  One of Avid’s strengths is their user community and the company is clearly working to communicate with their base.  Here’s another example.

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Barco reported strong results for the company’s Q2 and first half of 2010.  In the earnings press release, company President & CEO Eric Van Zele said that Q210 “Must have been our best quarter ever.”  Van Zele also said that Barco is “experiencing explosive growth in demand for our digital cinema projectors and are working very hard to deal with the supply chain issues this creates.”

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Storage vendor Isilon also reported their Q2 numbers this week, and they were pretty good.  The company’s Q2 revenues of $45.1m represented increases of 15% q/q and 56% y/y respectively. The company also had positive net income in the quarter.  Shares jumped 18% on the news.  With Isilon apparently firing on all cylinders and Omneon now part of Harmonic, the storage space is going to be interesting to watch over the next year or so.

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IPTV provider KIT Digital published strong preliminary results for their Q2.  In an upbeat press release, the company said that its Q2 revenues of “at least $22.7m” were up by more than 110%.  The company also said that its EBITDA for the quarter would be at least $4 Million

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Broadcaster and Platform Operator Earnings:

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Broadcaster LIN TV reported 2Q revenues of 99.5m, which represents a 21% y/y increase.  The company’s earnings release highlighted the fact that digital revenues were up by 44% y/y, and that political revenues more than doubled versus last year.  Lin President and CEO Vincent Sadusky said: “Our results demonstrate continued, sustained improvement over 2009. Television advertising has experienced a strong recovery and our digital business, which now constitutes 15% of our total revenues, continues to grow and differentiate us as a local multimedia company.”

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According to industry website TVNewswCheck, The McGraw-Hill Companies reported that its Broadcasting Group’s revenue grew by 24% to $25.3 million in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. Increases in national, local and political advertising all contributed to the improved performance.  The company as a whole reported net income for the second quarter of 2010 increased by 16.4%, or $27.0 million, to $191.1 million. Revenue in the second quarter was up 0.6% to $1.5 billion.

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Media General reported that the company’s broadcast revenue rose 13% in the second quarter, driven by increases in automotive and political advertising (publishing revenues fell by 7%). The company’s digital revenues rose by 8% during the quarter.  The company issued upbeat guidance for its broadcast properties saying, that “Broadcast revenues in the third quarter are expected to increase more than 20 percent, mostly reflecting significant Political revenues.”

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Finally, DVD rental and streaming video provider Netflix reported its Q2 results this week.  Although the company’s subscriber, revenue and net income numbers all numbers increased, it was not enough for investors who were looking for higher sales revenues.  The stock tanked.

For more on Netflix, check out the take from website VideoNuze, who penned an interesting post called 5 Key Takeaways from Netflix’s Q2 ’10 Results.

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Broadcast M&A

Echolab Rumors Continue

Since Echolab was suddenly put into liquidation, there has been great speculation about what would happen to the company’s IPR – particularly the Atem production switcher line up.  Well if rumors are to be believed, Blackmagic Designs is set to announce that they have purchased the assets of Echolab.  This is information is not confirmed, but I have spoken to several people about it.  

As many know, Blackmagic made headlines earlier this year when they purchased color correction specialist Da Vinci.    Coincidentally, TVB Europe just published an article about how Blackmagic took Da Vinci’s $200,000+ products into a sub-$1,000 product for the Mac and kept all the functionality.   If this rumor is true, it will certainly be interesting to see what Blackmagic has in store for Echolab’s Atem product line.  Watch this space. 

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Vitec Multimedia (not to be confused with the Vitec Group) announced the purchase of the Focus Enhancements’ Systems Group.  In the press release announcing the deal, Philippe Wetzel, CEO of VITEC Multimedia said “In combination with our recent acquisition of Optibase, this acquisition furthers our objective to provide a complete line of advanced digital video solutions to our customers around the globe. With innovation at its core, the VITEC R&D division — now with more than 100 esteemed engineers — is uniquely positioned to deliver innovative solutions for a wide range of advanced digital video applications — managing the entire video process from source to display.

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Vizrt announced that it has completed the acquisition of Adactus by buying the additional 71% of the company that it did not already own

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Other Broadcast Technology Vendor News

Vizrt’s Chief Commercial Officer appears to have left the company.  According to a press release from online gaming firm 888, David Zerah has become the managing director of Dragonfish.  While at Vizrt Zerah spent seven years as EVP of worldwide sales before becoming CCO.  Vizrt has not yet announced a replacement.

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3D News

The official IBC blog had an interesting entry on 3DTV the other day, which says that 3D will probably only impact the industry in “small dimensions”.

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OTT Video News

As mentioned above, Netflix reported their Q2 revenues.

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NewTeeVee Reports that Redbox readying a streaming offering.  Streaming media expert Dan Rayburn says Redbox Won’t Challenge Netflix’s Streaming Service, Here’s Why

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Digital Cinema

According to the Wall Street Journal, Imax has signed an exclusive 2-year deal with privately held Laser Light Engines. The company says that the resulting laser-power projectors will deliver brighter images for digital cinema, which will be especially beneficial for 3D.

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3D News – RealD Goes Public

3D provider RealD went public this week in a $200m IPO, which raised 33% more than expected, a testament to the strong interest in all things 3D.  The company’s shares were up 22% on its first day as a public company.

The company’s 100+ page IPO documents are worth reading for an overview of the company’s financials as well as the state of the 3D and Digital Cinema Markets.  Files 100+ Page IPO Doc. Worth Reading for Financials and #3D Industry Overview. #3DTV #Broadcast http://bit.ly/bCanRM

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Market Research Note of the Week – Quality Rankings of Broadcast Technology Vendors

This article looks at how a global sample of several thousand broadcast professionals ranked broadcast technology vendors for one of the most important metrics for any technology company: quality.

The broadcast industry prides itself on the fidelity of its sound and images, so the perception of quality is a very important metric for broadcast technology vendors. Many vendors use quality as one of the key components of their market positioning.

To determine the market’s perception of the quality of broadcast technology vendors, respondents to the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey were asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “quality” on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being best in the market and one being the worst.

As with the top 30 innovation rankings published earlier, this list contains a broad mix of vendors including both audio and video companies. There are also interesting similarities and differences in terms of the types of products produced, geographic location and company.

To read the full article, including analysis of the findings, click here http://bit.ly/cY2nZO

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Recent Investor Presentations from Vizrt and Harris

Broadcast technology vendor financials, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 29 2010

  

The CEO of both Vizrt and Harris made presentations to investors and equity analysts recently.  

Vizrt CEO Martin Burkhalter hosted a “Capital Markets Day” earlier this month, where he presented an overview of Vizrt’s business and positioning.  

Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Industrials Conference on June 23rd, Harris CEO Howard Lance presented a comprehensive overview of the company’s business.  The discussion of the company’s Broadcast Communications division begins on page 66.  The slide about the company’s competitive positioning is especially interesting.

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Devoncroft Digest — June 27, 2010

Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Broadcast technology vendor financials, Devoncroft Digest, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 27 2010

Here’s a recap of some of the items that caught my eye over the past week or so.

Broadcast Technology Vendor News

Another M&A Deal — RGB Buys Ripcode

In a multi-platform, multi-format world, video transcoding is one of the technologies that everyone needs.  But transcoding is a tough business with fierce competition, and it’s considered by many to be a commodity product.  This makes it tough for pure-play transcoding vendors (which is why most of them will tell you that they focus on workflow optimization).  All of the above makes it an interesting market to watch, so I took note when I read that Ripcode has been purchased by RGB networks. I always thought Ripcode was a pretty interesting company.  They raised a lot of money for their platform and they had a different approach to others in the market.  It will be interesting to see how they perform as part of RGB. 

To read more about this, check out Dan Rayburn’a Business of Video Blog, which has complete coverage of the deal here.

 

Evertz Delivers Good Results for Q4 and Full Year

Evertz Technologies delivered pretty good results for their Q4 and full year, topping the expectations of equity analysts. 

Here are some highlights from the company’s earnings press release here.

Revenue for Q4 was C$75.3m, down 3% versus the same period a year ago, but up 14% over the previous quarter.

In terms of geographic split, sales in Q4 from the US and Canada decreased by 28% versus the same period last year, but this was partially offset by a 41% y/y increase in international revenue (which Evertz defines as markets outside of the US and Canada).  International revenue rose by 23% versus the previous quarter, while sales in the US and Canada decreased by 28%.

Revenue for the full year was C$286.5, a 9% y/y decline. 

Annual revenue from the US and Canada declined 26% versus last year, while international revenue was up by 24% over last year.

The company’s gross margins slipped a bit to 58% (versus 61% last year).  On the earnings conference call, the company attributed this to pricing pressures and the cost of international expansion.

Overall, this was a strong performance from Evertz.  The company’s international growth is particularly notable. 

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Wegener Issues Preliminary Results

Wegener, which was delisted from the NASDAQ earlier this year, issued preliminary operating results for the third quarter ended May 28, 2010. Final results for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 will be released on July 12, 2010.

According to the company’s press release  preliminary operating results for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 were revenues of $2.1 million and a net loss of approximately $(487,000) or $(0.04) per share compared to revenues of $2.9 million and a net loss of $(883,000) or $(0.07) per share for the same period in fiscal 2009.

Company President & CEO Troy Woodbury said that “bookings performance in the third quarter was an improvement over the first and second quarters of fiscal 2010, but there is significant room for improvement.”

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French Employees Protest Grass Valley Sale

TVB reports that nearly 200 Grass Valley employees at the company’s facility in Rennes France went on strike to protest the shutdown of production. Grass Valley, which has been for sale for what seems like forever, is one the broadcast industry’s most storied names. 

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Dolby Opens R&D Center in China

Dolby Labs announced that it’s first “from the ground up” R&D facility outside of the US will be based in China.  In the company’s press release, Dolby VP Mahesh Sundaram said “China is strategically important to Dolby. The establishment of Dolby China’s R&E Center is an important milestone as part of our continued commitment to China and innovation.”  The facility will focus on sound technology.

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Technicolor Opens New Lab in Palo Alto

Meanwhile, French technology provider Technicolor (formerly known as Thomson) has announced that it is planning a new lab in Palto Alto, CA.  The company says the new lab will focus on the personalization of digitally delivered content, and enhance the company’s research skills in content discovery.   The company also says it chose Palo Alto for its proximity to excellent universities and for the potential for interaction within the Silicon Valley technology ecosystem.

 

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Broadcast Technology Vendor Confidence Beginning to Return

According to an article in TVB Europe, the IABM (the association which represents broadcast and media technology suppliers worldwide) has published the results of a new study about industry confidence.  The result — the worst of the recession appears to be over in the broadcast and media technology sector and vendors are feeling increasingly optimistic about the future.

The IABM says that 74% of vendors who participated in their poll are response anticipating better business next year than last, and that 47% of those surveyed are already reporting better order volumes than expected.  However the study also found that the industry is facing strong pricing pressure.

Disclosure: Devoncroft and the IABM partner on market intelligence.

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Other Items of Interest:

TVB reports that the new PricewaterhouseCoopers 2010-14 Global Entertainment and Media Outlook predicts that advertising revenues remain fragile in nature and spending is unlikely to return to former levels, and that by 2014, the U.S. advertising spend is expected to still be 9 percent below its level in 2007.

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NetApp Files 10K with SEC 

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Following April Announcement, John Malone Formally Steps Down as DirecTV Chairman 

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According to Dan Rayburn, here’s the “best article by far” about Google TV: “Google TV: everything you ever wanted to know” – Best article by far on the subject by Engadget. 

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The Wall Street Journal reported that News Corp Want to Buy Rest of BSkyB, but that Sky is holding out for more money.

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Harmonic was upgraded by Merrill Lynch, who say that the Omneon acquisition could be significantly accretive in 2011 

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Cablevision bought Bresnan Communications for $1.4Bn

 

 

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Market Research Note of the Week:

Innovation Rankings of Broadcast Technology Vendors – The Top 30 Globally

In keeping with the theme of top 30 rankings, let’s now turn to one of the most important metrics for any technology company – innovation.

The product side of the film & broadcast industry is driven by technology and innovation.  All vendors strive to create techniques that will make their products stand out from the competition.  Thus innovation is a very important component of the brand image and reputation of vendors in this space.

To find out which broadcast technology vendors are considered to be most highly regarded in terms of innovation, more than 4,000 broadcast industry professionals were  asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “Innovation” on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market. 

There’s a broad mix of vendors included in these ranking, including both audio and video and audio companies.  There are also interesting similarities and differences in terms of the types of products produced, geographic location and company size.  So let’s look a little deeper into these results….

To see the full results, included three ranking tables and analysis, please follow this link.

You can find other 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS) here:

The Top 30 Broadcast Technology Vendor Brands by Overall Opinion, Ranked, Globally and Regionally

The Top 30 Broadcast Vendor Brands by Net Change in Brand Image.

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Devoncroft Digest for the w/e May 21, 2010 – Echolab Liquidates, Earnings Season Continues, Bankers on Broadcast, Google Gets into TV

Broadcast technology vendor financials, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
May 23 2010

Devoncroft Digest – Recap of the week ending May 21 2010

It was a busy week in the broadcast & digital media world.  Echolab was forced to liquidate, multiple companies reported their quarterly earnings (which were mainly positive), two investment banking houses published notes on the broadcast industry, and Google made a little announcement about their plans to transform the TV viewing experience.

Here’s a recap of some of the things that caught my attention this week

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Echolab goes into liquidation

Long-established broadcast production switcher vendor Echolab announced via email this week that the company has been put into liquidation by its owner.  Echolab, which has been in business since 1974, had been on the ascendance recently under the leadership of company CEO Nigel Spratling.   

Spratling revamped the company’s product line-up, which culminated in the launch of the Atem production switcher family.  At NAB 2010 Echolab announced that it had signed an OEM deal for the Atem line with the broadcast communications division of Harris (who has now removed the press release about the deal from their website). 

The email from Spratling said the company’s primary investor was no longer prepared to fund the company, and that the news was a great show to everyone.  

Read the full text of Spratling’s email.

 

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Viewcast losses narrow

Streaming technology provider Viewcast announced their results for the first quarter of FY’10. The company’s reported that their losses narrowed. Revenue for the quarter was up slightly versus the previous quarter, but down 13% versus the same period a year ago.  The company also filed an 8K with the SEC this week, detailing the compensation plans of their CEO and CFO.

 

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More Broadcast M&A — Tektronix acquires Mixed Signals 

Test & measurement leader Tektronix announced this week that it is acquiring Mixed Signals, a provider of digital content monitoring including digital services, transport streams, ad insertion, switched digital video and interactive content.

According to said Eben Jenkins, General Manager of the Tektronix Video Business, “The acquisition of Mixed Signals, Inc. brings to Tektronix a strong team that has delivered leading innovation to the video monitoring market. The combination of Mixed Signals and Tektronix accelerates our ability to provide unmatched next-generation video test and monitoring solutions to our customers.”

 

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Continued growth for Ross Video

Privately held Ross Video said in a press release Ross Video that the company had achieved 7% growth in the first half of its fiscal year.  Although private, Ross has been vocal about their success in the face of the economic downturn of the past 18 months.  During the IBC show last September, company CEO David Ross told the IBC Daily News that the company had continued to grow during the recession.  In the most recent press release, Ross says “We continue to buck the downward trend and have enjoyed some record months.”

 

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Vizrt posts operating profit on big revenue gains

Broadcast graphics and asset management vendor Vizrt reported that their revenue grew by 38% in the first quarter of 2010 versus the same period, but fell 9% versus the previous quarter.  The company made an operating profit of $200K during the quarter, versus a loss of 2.4m during the same period a year ago. Company CEO Martin Burkhalter issued an upbeat statement saying that “broadcast markets are slowly recovering and … that CAPEX budgets and discretionary spending are being restored.”  Burkhalter, who recently stepped into the role of CEO after the death of Bjarne Berg concluded by saying “In terms of revenues, we believe that we are heading back towards the levels we achieved prior to the global downturn and anticipate to reach these levels in the coming nine to twelve months.  With this recovery, we expect our profitability to improve as well.”

 

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Autodesk M&E revenue declines by 4%

3D animation leader Autodesk (the parent company of Discreet and others) posted strong revenues for the first quarter of 2010.  In the earnings press release, which breaks out financials by industry segment, the company revealed that revenue for its Media & Entertainment group was $46m in the quarter.  This is basically flat with the previous quarter and represents a 4% decline versus same period a year ago

 

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Trouble at JVC Kenwood

The Wall Street Journal also reported that JVC Kenwood Holdings fell 21% to Y38 on heavy volume after the company’s Friday announcement of its plan to submit a resolution for 1-for-10 reverse stock split at its upcoming shareholders meeting. One brokerage manager, citing past reverse stock split scenarios, said that without fundamental business improvements, it would be hard to expect the company’s stock to show long-term appreciation.

 

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DG FastChannel added to S&P SmallCap 600 index

Standard & Poor’s announced this week that it is adding DG FastChannel to its S&P SmallCap 600 Index.  DG FastChannel, who recently raised $100m in a secondary public offering, has been on a tear recently.  The company’s stock has more than doubled in the last eight months, and it recently reported record results for its first quarter based on increased advertising revenue. 

 

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Ascent Media CEO dies at age 44

Ascent Media this week announced the sad news that Jose Royo, the CEO of the company’s AMG subsidiary had died at age 44.  “José was a thoughtful and caring business leader, mentor, partner, and friend,” said William Fitzgerald, Chief Executive Officer of Ascent Media Corporation. “José played a significant role in the media services industry, where he left an indelible mark. He was truly passionate about Ascent, its customers, and its people. José was a wonderfully devoted husband to his beloved wife, and father to his two young children. Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this difficult time. José will be missed.”

 

 

Google, coming to a TV near you soon?

As covered extensively this week, Google has unveiled a strategy which it believes will transform the TV viewing experience by combining it with the web. The company has partnered with Sony, Intel and Logitech to create a new type of TV experience.  Watch this space.

 

 

TiVo and Technicolor Team Up to Offer Integrated PVR Solution

I have been a big fan of Tivo since buying their very first PVR in 1999 (which still works great, and in my opinion provides a significantly better experience than the alternative from my pay TV provider), so I was interested to see that the company has teamed up with Technicolor (formerly Thomson) for a new set-top box solution.  You can read the details here…

 

 

Two Investment bankers weight in on NAB 2010 and the broadcast space

Two boutique investment banks, Silverwood Partners and Pharus Advisors have recently published notes to clients detailing their impressions of the NAB 2010 show.  Both companies gave me permission to re-publish them here.

Silverwood has been involved in a number of broadcast M&A deals includingBlackmagic / DaVinci and Avid / Euphonix. Prior to the 2010 NAB show the company published, which is worth reading to get their full perspective on the broadcast market.  

Pharus has also been involved in a number of industry transactions including Neural and Virgin Media / Two Way Media. The company published their post-NAB thoughts in their industry newsletter, which also includes a summary of recent M&A transactions in the digital media space, and a comparison of publicly traded companies.

More info on this here…

 

 

3D news

Broadband TV News reports that UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB is bullish on 3D.  An article on the website says that Sky says there could be up to 1m 3D screens in UK by

Speaking of 3D, the Schubin Café website posted a link to an article which says that watching 3D can make you sick. 

 

 

Market Research Note of the Week:

What factors most influence the purchase of broadcast technology products?

Regardless of “how” broadcast technology products are purchased, what many in the industry want to know is “why” they are bought — i.e. what are the most important factors that influence the decision to buy one product over another.

When it comes to selling broadcast technology, there are several strategies that vendors have adopted. This includes positioning their offerings as having the best technology, the best feature set, the lowest cost, the best value, the best service, the most recommended etc.

But which factor is the most important to the most buyers?

To find out we asked several thousand broadcast professionals around the world what is most important to them when buying broadcast technology products.

You can see the results, including a chart that ranks 10 different factors that influence the purchase of broadcast technology products here…

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Echolab Goes into Liquidation

Broadcast technology vendor financials | Posted by Joe Zaller
May 20 2010

Long-established broadcast production switcher vendor Echolab announced via email today that the company has been put into liquidation.   

Echolab, which has been in business since 1974, had been on the ascendance recently under the leadership of company CEO Nigel Spratling.   

Spratling revamped the company’s product line-up, which culminated in the launch of the Atem production switcher family.  At NAB 2010 Echolab announced that it had signed an OEM deal for the Atem line with the broadcast communications division of Harris (who has now removed the press release about the deal from their website). 

The email from Spratling said the company’s primary investor was no longer prepared to fund the company, and that the news was a great show to everyone.  

The full text of Spratling’s email is below:   

    

From:Nigel Spratling [mailto:nspratling@echolab.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2010
Subject:Echolab closureDear all (distribution list concealed for privacy),   

It is with much sadness that I have to tell you that yesterday (May 19th) Echolab was put into liquidation. Our primary investor who had negotiated the recent agreement with Harris was no longer prepared to fund the company through the transition and decided that this was his only course of action; it was a great shock to us all.    

I am truly sorry that this action leaves many unemployed, suppliers with unpaid bills and customers with unsupported products. The recent introduction of an expanded Atem switcher family look set to take us into growth and profit as the market reception was excellent and our sales funnel had grown by $2M as a result. We had been sustaining a run rate of about $5M and the addition of Atem was set to double that.    

I truly believe that our small team had created the very best of breed in small and medium sized production switchers and at a price point that provided exceptional value and margin, facing the loss of these efforts is difficult for everyone involved.    

The liquidation company will be trying to sell the companies assets, product IP and inventory in order to pay creditors over the next few weeks. Hopefully they will be successful in their efforts.    

Naturally there are now some good people looking for jobs (including me), so if anyone is hiring please let me know.    

Best regards,

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Vizrt and Ross Video Report Increased Revenues

Broadcast technology vendor financials, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends | Posted by Joe Zaller
May 20 2010

As earnings season continues, two broadcast technology vendors reported some good news this week.

Yesterday, broadcast graphics, asset management and online vendor Vizrt posted their Q1 results for 2010. The company said its revenues rose 38% versus the same period last year, while its backlog increased by 78% versus last year.  In the earnings press release, the company’s CEO said that “broadcast markets are slowly recovering and … CAPEX budgets are being restored”.

Today privately held Ross Video issued a press release highlighting continued growth.  The company said its revenues for the first half of its fiscal year rose by 7% versus a year ago. In the press release, company CEO David Ross said “We continue to buck the downward trend and have enjoyed some record months.”

While the earnings of broadcasters have been generally positive this quarter, reflecting increases in advertising and political spending, the fortunes of broadcast technology vendors have been mixed.  It will be interesting to see when (whether) the pick-up in broadcaster revenues and profit translates into increased technology capex, and therefore revenue and profit increases for broadcast technology vendors.  Watch this space.

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Two Investment Banks Offer Post-NAB Thoughts, Insight on Broadcast Industry

Broadcast technology vendor financials, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
May 18 2010

Two boutique investment banks, Silverwood Partners and Pharus Advisors have recently published notes to clients detailing their impressions of the NAB 2010 show.  Both companies gave me permission to re-publish them here.

 

Silverwood has been involved in a number of broadcast M&A deals including Blackmagic / DaVinci and Avid / Euphonix. Prior to the 2010 NAB show the company published a 40 page report about the broadcast industry for their investment banking clients, which is worth reading to get their full perspective on the broadcast market.  

Pharus has also been involved in a number of industry transactions including Neural Audio / DTS and Virgin Media / Two Way Media. The company published their post-NAB thoughts in their industry newsletter, which also includes a summary of recent M&A transactions in the digital media space, and a comparison of publicly traded companies.

 

 

Silverwood NAB Perspectives:

Revenue Flow versus Work Flow.  Broadcast and media customers are principally focused on sustaining advertising revenue from traditional outlets and driving incremental revenue over emerging outlets. The focus over recent years on cost containment through automation and technology efficiencies has been eclipsed by the need to adapt technology infrastructure to a changing business model.  The Newspaper industry provides an instructive lesson on the need to be responsive to external challenges to traditional business norms.  Technology vendors are faced with customers that have shifting purchasing priorities and that are scrutinizing expenditures on conventional broadcast infrastructure.

 

3D will not Reverse Industry Revenue Decline.  While 3D may drive some additional short term revenue, widespread adoption is still in question because certain content will never lend itself to the 3D medium.  Furthermore, with the exception of large screen environments showing purpose produced content (Avatar, Alice in Wonderland), the current 3D experience requires additional improvement.  There are no clear standards for end user devices (TVs and glasses) so mass end-consumer device adoption – if it is to occur – will take time.  Consider that the ongoing HD transition began with the first HDTV broadcast in 1998 and is still only 40% complete in the US market.  Lastly, production methods themselves must also adapt to the creation of 3D content – there is no consistency in the content acquisition process, much of which is based on trial and error and research.  3D requires a new approach in the creative production process as fast switching and cuts can prove to be nauseating to the viewer.  There are also concerns that poorly produced 3D will lead to negative customer perceptions in the near term which will slow adoption and the long term success of the medium.

 

Pricing is Collapsing.  Years of substantial profitability for media and broadcast customers masked poor cost discipline in the sourcing of technology.   Recent weakness in the advertising market and the broader economic disruption has caused customers to focus on capital budgets and look for more cost effective solutions.  Compounding this challenge, inexpensive general purpose IT infrastructure continues to replace purpose built hardware solutions, creating good enough solutions at attractive prices for many use cases.  This is putting pressure on margins for many traditional Broadcast technology vendors who organized their cost structures for the high price, ‘boom’ years and cannot adapt quickly enough to the changed industry circumstances.

 

Value Separation: Software, Hardware, Connectivity.  Historically, broadcast and post-production customers purchased purpose built solutions where the discrete software, hardware and connectivity components were blended within a hardware solution.  As the hardware portion becomes increasingly standardized, vendors will need to focus on defensible segments of the value chain, particularly within the software layer.  In many cases specialized hardware vendors are effectively software companies burdened with a legacy hardware orientation.  It is expected that vendors will need transformative change rather than evolutionary adaptation to address the fundamental changes in the media technology industry. 

 

Growing Software Opportunity.  It is expected that software companies will continue to be a growing presence in the media technology industry.  Differentiation from IT solutions for incumbent vendors resides in the software layer.  Well-positioned companies have software solutions that extend and leverage basic IT functionality, which will continue to improve in speed and capability.  From a product perspective, technology vendors should examine their product portfolios to identify and extract the unique software functionality that is truly differentiating their offerings.  In addition, the increasing use of standardized IT platform technology is creating a growing market for software vendors that can use the standardization to scale efficiently. 

 

Commercial Opportunity: Customer Diversification.  Well-positioned companies are diversifying and selling to a broader customer base, particularly customers outside the traditional broadcast market.   Targeting other industry verticals is not feasible with a customized hardware solution and an industry focused direct sales model.  In contrast, software solutions that extend standardized hardware and that are deployed through VARs and channel partners can be more easily adapted to large, adjacent industry verticals (Medical, Military, Enterprise).

 

Business Model Disruption.   For NAB exhibitors there remains fundamental weakness in the traditional broadcast technology industry.  The reduction in industry revenues will highlight one of the principal difficulties for many NAB exhibitors: sales and marketing expense is too high for revenue levels.  With pricing pressure, many vendors will need to change to a distribution model or become part of a larger solution that can support the fixed sales expense.   Well-positioned, well-capitalized vendors will have a unique opportunity to acquire established, respected brands with large user bases over the coming year.

 

Service Opportunity – Revenue Flow.  Broadcasters and media companies are faced with a proliferation of technologies and monetization possibilities, and an accelerating rate of technology change.  Historically, broadcasting challenges were solved by buying incremental technologies to plug into an existing well-understood technology infrastructure.  Current business challenges require business model innovation coupled with technology platform innovation to drive revenues across a growing range of end-point devices and outlets.  Given the lack of clarity on the optimal revenue model and the rapid pace of technology change, broadcasters and media customers are reluctant to invest in standalone technology purchases.  This is creating an attractive service opportunity driven by the ability to provide incremental revenue growth with a low barrier to entry, a receptive customer and an attractive ROI.

 

 

 

 

PHARUS ADVISORS

PUBLIC MARKET AND M&A UPDATE ON MEDIA AND BROADCAST TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY

NAB OVERVIEW

We recently attended the NAB 2010 conference in Las Vegas. We came out of the conference feeling the media and broadcast technology market is experiencing a healthy recovery from 2009. The recurring comment echoed by many industry players was that the deals in the customer pipeline that were stalled in 2009 are now morphing into real opportunities. The RFP activity is showing decent improvement, however, the sales‐cycle continues to be long and spending not completely flowing.

Even though the network spending in North America, which was driven by conversion to HDTV over last few years, is slowing, other factors like changes in customer preferences, and pressure to generate new sources of revenues and reduce costs are expected to continue to drive technology capital expenditure for networks. These new developments are adding new dynamism to the sector, which can be witnessed by the plethora of vendors and solutions.

Here are some of prominent themes that we witnessed at the NAB show this year.

  • Emergence of 3D television broadcasting: As expected, this was the major theme at NAB similar to what was the case at CES earlier this year. TV manufacturers continue to be enthusiastic about this trend. CES expects 4.3 million 3D TV sets to be sold in 2010, with about 25% of total TVs sold in 2013 to be 3D‐enabled. Even though some major players (like DIRECTV, Discovery, IMAX, and etc.) have made announcements over last few months about launching 3D content, a lot of the content producers and broadcasters are still not sure about how quickly this market opportunity will grow in the near term. As a result, they tend to be reticent to make investment in this area at this point.

 

  • Development of multi‐platform content distribution (broadcast, web and mobile) capability: The spending on TV advertising is gradually declining. According to Yankee Group, the TV ad market declined 21.2%, from $52 billion to $41 billion, between 2008 and 2009. During this same period spending on Internet advertising grew as a result of consumers spending more time online and less time watching TV. With more and more eyeballs consuming video content on Web and mobile devices, broadcasters are investing in technologies which enable delivery of content over multitude of platforms.

 

  • Adoption of file‐based workflows: One of the important areas of investment for broadcasters remains implementation of file‐based workflow infrastructure. This is viewed as important by broadcasters to augment flexibility in day‐to‐day operations, facilitate reduction in operational costs, and enable efficient multi‐platform content distribution.

 

Emergence of Over‐the‐Top (OTT) Video and convergence of TV and Internet: The other recurring trend at the show was the focus on growing convergence between broadcast TV and Web video. Internet users are increasingly interested in streaming full length video directly onto their TVs and as a result variety of models are appearing to provide consumers with this capability. According to report by Tender Research from October 2009, about 7% of households will forgo Pay TV subscriptions by 2012 in favor of OTT services and free over‐the‐air television. OTT market is moving very fast with proliferation of enabling devices like Roku, Xbox, and a range of new HDTV models and growth of online video sites such as Hulu, Netflix,

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Devoncroft Digest – Week Ending May 14th 2010. Earnings Season Continues

Broadcast technology vendor financials, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
May 16 2010

Earnings season continues with good numbers from broadcasters, and mixed results from vendors.

Broadcaster Earnings Continue to Rise

Broadcasting & Cable reported that Gray Television reported first quarter revenues of $70.5 million, up 15% from the revenue it announced in the first quarter of last year. Gray said the number exceeded its initial expectations.

B&C also reported that Scripps saw its revenues rise 11% y/y. The company is also forecasting strong results for its second quarter.

US Satellite broadcaster Dish Networks was in the news several times last week.  It posted its Q1 results at the beginning of the week, which showed revenues rise by 5 percent, but net income fall by 26 percent.  The company also said it was prepared to shut down its DVR service if it loses its protracted patent battle with DVR pioneer Tivo. But then on Friday a US federal appeals court said the case between Dish and Tivo. This sent Tivo shares down by more than 40%.

 

 

Broadcast Technology Vendor News

EVS Reports 5th Consecutive Growth Quarter, Disappoints Analysts

Broadcast server and storage vendor EVS reported its Q1FY10 numbers this week.  According to the company’s press release to company reported its 5th quarter in a row of growth.  However both the revenue and profit were below the expectations of analysts, and the company’s stock price fell by 10% to a 10 month low following the announcement.  A Reuter’s article quotes analyst Nico Melsens of KBC as saying “the order book was okay, first quarter sales were okay, but the gross margin was below consensus forecast.”                        

Harmonic Holds Analyst Day, Discusses Omneon Deal

Following the release of its earnings last week, Harmonic held meeting for analyst day during which the company’s CEO and CFO presented an overview of the company’s business to equity analysts. One of the topics of interest was the company’s recent acquisition of broadcast server and storage vendor Omneon.   You can listen to a reply of the analyst presentation here.  Information on the Omneon deal is presented at the 21.5 minute mark, as well as in the Q&A. 

Sony Expects to Return to Profit

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Sony says expects to return to profit this fiscal year after two straight years in the red, as painful restructuring measures give way to an improved outlook for its troubled television and video game units. Sony said its restructuring is finally paying and that it expects its television business, which has lost money six years in a row, to return to profitability, boosted by 3-D TVs which it hopes will drive new interest and slow the price declines that eat into profits.

Vizrt CEO Passes Away

TVB Europe reported the sad news that Vizrt CEO, Bjarne Berg, has passed away suddenly at the age of 59.   

New CMO at Chyron

Broadcast graphics vendor Chyron announced that it has hired a new VP and CMO.   Bonnie Barclay comes from The Branding Iron, LLC – an Atlanta-based television and branding company.  She has also worked at Scripps, Cox, and Belo.

 

 

Market Research Note of the Week:

Purchasing Preferences of Broadcast Technology Buyers – “Best-of-Breed” or “One-Stop-Shop?

How do buyers of broadcast technology products prefer to purchase: using a best-of-breed approach (evaluating products from multiple vendors) or a one-stop shop where one vendor provides a complete solution?

To find out, we canvassed the opinions of several thousand broadcast professionals around the world as part of the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey.

There are a huge number of vendors in the broadcast technology space, and the industry’s vendor community is fragmented. Major international trade exhibitions such as NAB and IBC often have between 1000 and 1500 exhibitors at their shows.

On the one hand are the many vendors who are relatively small and specialize in one or two product types. There are also a small number of large international vendors who produce dozens of product types. There are obvious advantages that come with the scale that large companies have achieved, but small companies often argue that their more nimble, focused approach results in superior products.

This has led to an ongoing debate within the broadcast industry about whether it’s better to buy so-called best-of-breed solutions from a variety of suppliers or go to one large company and buy everything from a single vendor.

There are pros and cons to each approach. Dealing with a number of companies may indeed enable buyers to assemble a best-of-breed system, but this approach may introduce interoperability issues and potential finger pointing between vendors if things go wrong. Dealing with a large one-stop shop gives buyers the peace of mind that interoperability issues have been solved, that there is one phone number to call if things go wrong and that there will be no finger pointing.

To see the results of this research, including a chart with a breakdown of different types of buyers, click here.

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Devoncroft Digest – Week Ending May 7th 2010 — Broadcasters Earnings Improving, Will it Lead to Increased Capex? Vendors Report Mixed Earnings. Harmonic Buys Omneon.

Broadcast technology vendor financials, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
May 09 2010

There was a lot of action last week.  Earnings season continued with several broadcasters, broadcast service providers and broadcast technology vendors reporting their numbers. 

There was also a big broadcast M&A deal announced, with Harmonic scooping up Omneon for $274m in cash and stock.

Earnings of Broadcasters and Broadcast Service Providers

A number of broadcasters and broadcast service providers reported their quarterly earnings this week.  For the most part, the news was positive with revenue and profits improving thanks to an improvement in the advertising environment.

News Corp posted strong numbers for its Q3, with revenue growth of 19% versus the previous year.  However revenues from satellite broadcasting declined.

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that their Q1 revenue increased 12.7% versus the prior year period.  Sinclair reported that political advertising had increased sharply, and that 8 of its top 10 advertising categories were up in the quarter – with automotive up 35.6%, and services up 10.1%.  Sinclair gave a positive outlook for their Q2 and also said that they expect their capex to be $19m in 2010, including $8m in the current quarter.

TVB reported that Belo’s revenue increased 15.6% in the first quarter. Like Sinclair, Belo’s results  including a big jump in political revenue.

Liberty Media announced positive Q1 results, lifted by a strong performance at QVC.

Revenue at Cablevision grew 5.2%, but income more than doubled.  According to the Motley Fool website, the company’s “telecommunications services – which includes basic video, interactive optimum video, high-speed data, and voice, along with commercial data and voice service and the programming segment — chalked up a 20.6% growth in operating income. Keeping in step with its cable brethren, the company also posted a 35.1% jump in cable advertising.”

Ascent Media did not fare as well in their first quarter.  The company posted a loss of $11.1m as its revenues declined by 9% versus the previous year. Nevertheless the company’s earnings press release was relatively optimistic, noting that as advertising markets improve the company has been involved in the creation of “more than 800 television commercials and a substantial number of this year’s episodic television pilots…[and] are currently working on a solid pipeline of 3D features. Ascent CEO William Fitzgerald  said the company is “beginning to see stabilization in the global advertising and media markets.”

  

  

Broadcast Technology Vendor Financial Results

Several reported earning this week, including Miranda, DG FastChannel, Chyron, QuStream and Harmonic. 

Broadcast technology vendor results were mixed, with DG FastChannel, Harmonic and Chyron posting increases in revenue, while Miranda and QuStream fared less well.

 

DG FastChannel reported record Q1 results which the company’s CEO Scott Ginsburg attributed “Stellar growth in both traditional and online advertising, the continued adoption of the high definition (HD) advertising format, and the advent of a hotly contested year in politics.” The company’s revenue increased by 31% versus the same period last year, and EBIT increase by 71% y/y.  Investors liked the news and sent the company’s shares more than 12% higher following the announcement.

  

Harmonic announced strong Q1 results that saw revenues climb by 25% versus the previous year,  The company achieved a net income of $5.3m versus $18.8m loss last year.  The company also announced that it has agreed to acquire 100% of Omneon (see below).

Broadcast graphics provider Chyron said its revenue increased by 10% versus the same period last year, and that its service revenue accounted for 33% of total.  Nevertheless the company posted a net loss of $.7m during the period.  In Chyron’s earnings press release, company CEO Michael Wellesley-Wesley said he expects revenue and earnings to climb in 2010.  

Broadcast infrastructure provider Miranda Technologies reported first quarter results that were below the expectations of equity analysts.  The company’s revenues were down 13% versus the same quarter last year, and 19% versus the previous quarter. Revenue from the US market was down 50% y/y, while revenue from Canada and international markets both rose sharply.  In the company’s press release, Miranda CEO Strath Goodship said: “We continue to believe that broadcast markets have stabilized, however the timing and strength of a rebound remains uncertain. Sales momentum in International markets continues to build and we are seeing signs of a broad based recovery. Sales activity in North American markets, particularly the USA remains constrained, although we are hopeful the heightened product interest seen at NAB will translate into stronger revenues in these markets going forward. The new products introduced at NAB, along with a number of sporting and political events in 2010 should help drive revenues and position us for growth.”

Routing switcher and pro-AV vendor QuStream (Pesa) posted a net loss $1m.  Sales for the quarter were $1.7m, a decline of 29% versus the same period a year ago.

  

 

Harmonic Buys Omneon

In addition to announcing pretty good numbers for Q1, Harmonic also announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of broadcast server and storage vendor Omneon.

Much of the Harmonic conference call was dedicated to the acquisition, and Omneon CEO Suresh Vasudevan presented the company to analysts (many of whom were clearly unfamiliar with Omneon and its business).  Here is a link to the replay of the Harmonic earnings conference call, which provides details of the Omneon acquisition   You can also read a transcript of the call here.

I spoke to Omneon SVP Geoff Stedman minutes after the announcement was made public.  He told me that the deal grew out of partnership talks that Omneon and Harmonic had started more than a year ago.  Stedman also said that the Omneon name will continue for the foreseeable future, with Omneon CEO Vasudevan becoming the president of the Omneon division of Harmonic.  Much of Omneon’s key leadership team will also remain in place, and continue to report to Vasudevan, who will report to Harmonic CEO Patrick Harshman.  In my view, this is a good move.  Omneon has a strong, execution-oriented executive team who understands their market well – and there is a very, very big difference between the cable / satellite market (where Harmonic plays) and the broadcast market where Omneon plays.

According to the press release, Harmonic agreed to pay $274m for Omneon.  Investors did not immediately warm to the deal… the AP reported that, Harmonic’s shares plummeted 19% following the announcement of the deal.

 

 

Other

Finally, broadcast business management specialist VCI Solutions has appointed Robert Furlong as its new president & CEO.  Furlong is an industry veteran and former VCI customer.  He has been a TV station GM with both Freedom and Meredith

 

 

Market Research Note of the Week:

How are broadcast technology products typically purchased – Direct from vendor, SI or dealer?

As part of the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey I asked several thousand technology buyers (including broadcasters, playout centers, cable/satellite/IPTV operators, education, film studios etc) in 120+ countries how they typically buy broadcast technology products – direct from a vendor; through a systems integrator; through a dealer; or some other way.

It turns out that there is considerable variation in the way broadcast technology products are purchased, with each category of buyer exhibiting different purchasing preferences. 

These results help readers to better understand the channel structure in the broadcast market.  They are interesting because they highlight that there are some times when it makes more sense for vendors to use a channel than go direct.  They also show that there are some types of buyers who are more used to buying through the channel versus direct.

To see the results, including a chart that breaks responses down by company type, please click here.

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