Netplay TV push sees £3.2m half-year loss
Restructuring to exploit terrestrial TV opportunities has seen Netplay record a £3.2m loss, the company's half-year results reveal.
RESTRUCTURING TO exploit terrestrial TV opportunities has seen Netplay make a £3.2m loss, the company’s half-year results reveal.
The costs of restructuring in order to realise the opportunities in UK terrestrial TV presented by the relaxation of guidelines by media watchdog Ofcom saw Netplay post a pre-tax loss of £3.2m for the six months ended 30 June 2009, after breaking even for the same period last year.
Revenue fell 8% to £9.3m, from £10.1m.
NetPlay, which came 37th in this year’s Power 50, said performance had been particularly impacted by the sale of its premium rate telephony business, Abstract Games, in early 2009, and heavy investment in staff and technologyto enable the company to partner with Tier 1 media channels.
However chief executive Martin Higginson said these one-off costs had been necessary if the business was to fully realise the opportunities presented by UK communications watchdog Ofcom’s recent reclassification of gambling programming as teleshopping, allowing public service channels to show gambing programming between midnight and 6am.
Higginson said: “These decisions have allowed us to fully exploit the UK terrestrial TV opportunities and are an important move if we are to enter into long-term deals with major global broadcasters.”
Higginson said that deals signed by NetPlay in the last with Five, FreeSat, Freeview, STV, Turner Media and Virgin Media Television meant the company “now dominates the UK terrestrial and digital TV interactive gaming market, and is able to generate stronger and better quality revenues.”
Gross bets were up 31% to £204m for the six months ended 30 June 2009, from £154m a year earlier. Netplay said it anticipated this to grow further with the addition of terrestrial TV channels STV and Channel Five in late September 2009, adding that numbers of daily depositing players had also increased five-fold since launching on terrestrial TV in mid-September 2009.
The period also saw NetPlay launch its interactive mobile to TV product, with mobile gaming margin revenues increasing 450% to £0.9m for the first half of 2009, from £0.2m for same period last year.
The company however revealed that its investment in a new backend live software deal with Playtech had resulted in its putting back the move of its core SuperCasino live casino business offshore, from April to the last quarter of 2009.
For more on TV gaming, see our The coming of age of TV gaming feature.