Digitalbox Regulatory News (DBOX)

19 September 2023

Digitalbox plc

("Digitalbox", the "Group" or the "Company")

Trading Update

Digitalbox plc, the mobile-first digital media business, which owns leading websites Entertainment Daily, The Daily Mash, The Tab and The Poke today announces a trading update ahead of the publication of its unaudited results for the six months to June 2023 ("H1 2023") which are due to be announced on 26 September 2023.

For H1 2023, the Group will report revenue of £1.2m (unaudited) and net cash of £2.3 million (as at 30 June 2023).

While the Company has traded ahead of the Board's expectations in H1 2023, it has seen traffic sourcing to its sites in the first months of H2 2023 continue to be impacted by a previously communicated and well-documented trend that many publishers are seeing.

This trend is for lower traffic volumes from the major platform sources Alphabet and Meta to third party sites. Macro-economic pressure on these key players means they have had to increase consumer engagement time on their own platforms to improve their results, which has reduced traffic sent to third-party publishers like Digitalbox.

Furthermore, Digitalbox has seen a block within Google Discover cutting traffic to the Group's leading brand Entertainment Daily, and an imposed reach reduction on a leading Facebook page for The Tab. While traffic volumes have been disappointing, session values have traded materially ahead of the market.

There remains uncertainty as to the degree to which traffic from the major platform sources may recover in H2 2023, but the Board expects full-year revenue for 2023 to be approximately £2.8m and the Company to remain profitable at adjusted EBITDA* level.

To combat this emerging trend, the Company has been planning an on-platform pivot fuelled by AI-assisted video output creation to increase audience engagement for its brands. This new approach has been combined with the acquisition of the Social Chain assets in August. This acquisition has increased the Group's followers on social media from 8m to over 20m. This expansion provides a significant opportunity for the Group to gain revenue in 2024 when the digital ad market is expected to recover as the Company becomes less reliant on taking audiences off the major platforms.

Adjusted EBITDA, defined as the profit from operations after deducting depreciation, amortisation, share-based payments, acquisition and listing costs, direct costs associated with business combinations and capital restructure costs.

Market abuse regulation: This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"). The person responsible for arranging for the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company is James Carter, Chief Executive Officer.

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About Digitalbox plc

Based in the UK, Digitalbox is a 'pure-play' digital media business with the aim of profitable publishing at scale on mobile platforms.

Digitalbox operates the trading brands of "Entertainment Daily", "The Daily Mash", "The Tab", and "The Poke". 

Entertainment Daily produces and publishes online UK entertainment news covering TV, showbiz and celebrity news. The Daily Mash produces and publishes satirical news content. The Tab is the UK's biggest youth culture site fuelled by students. The Poke expertly curates and editorialises the funniest content from around the web and social media.

Digitalbox primarily generates revenue from the sale of advertising in and around the content it publishes. The Company's optimisation for mobile enables it to achieve revenues per session significantly ahead of market norms for publishers on mobile.