27th Jan 2015 07:44
LONDON (Alliance News) - Entertainment One Ltd said Tuesday that it anticipates full-year earnings to be ahead of its expectations, despite seeing revenues down 5% in its first nine months, due to a strong performance from its family-entertainment business and controlled costs in its film segment.
The media company said that a 36.8% rise in television revenues in the nine months to end-December 2014 was offset by a 13.5% decline in film revenues.
The decline in film revenues was due to lower theatrical activity and a fall in home entertainment revenues. Entertainment One said that despite the weaker global box office, it has improved its gross margin by carefully managing its operational costs.
During the nine months the company released 191 films, generating box office receipts of USD255 million compared to USD380 million a year before. The company said its film slate for the 2016 financial year "continues to look strong", and expressed optimism for the recovery of the global box officer over the next year and a half.
Television revenues were driven by increased production volumes, and more programming sales to international broadcasters and digital platforms including Amazon.com Inc's video streaming service and Netflix Inc.
Entertainment One's Family business continued to be boosted by a strong performance from its 'Peppa Pig' children's brand. The company said it had seen "very strong retail sales" for Peppa Pig products over the Christmas period in all of its territories. The company said the brand is on track to deliver over USD1 billion in retail sales in the current year.
"Management anticipates a more sustained improvement in the global box office and also expects television markets to continue to evolve with demand for high quality, exclusive content growing from both traditional broadcast networks and digital platforms," the company said in a statement.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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