10 Dec 2019 07:00
Entertainment AI plc
("EAI", or the "Company", or the "Group")
Rugby World Cup and Technology Update
Entertainment AI plc (AIM:EAI), a fast growing technology and media platform company, is pleased to provide a technology update with respect to the recent Rugby World Cup pilot as promised in the Company's Q3 Trading Update announced on 16 October 2019.
The October Trading Update reinforced the Company's expectations of strong growth in the Group's global audience, content and net revenue from digital ads. Today's Technology Update represents the second step of the Group's announced Q4 launch plan to both reinforce growth and to integrate technology following its 1 October 2019 admission to AIM. These two updates set the stage for an exciting 2020 and expectations for the Group's first full year of operations.
The Group's growth plan is to use proprietary AI and micro-moments technology of the kind demonstrated at the Rugby World Cup to expand EAI's revenue channels beyond its existing fast-growing digital advertising revenue. This accretive growth includes paid subscriptions from its base of approximately 90 million unpaid subscribers, licensing from strategic partners and e-commerce revenue from a base of approximately 12 billion (and growing) annual video views.
Rugby World Cup
As previously announced, EAI's wholly-owned technology subsidiary, Tagasauris, Inc. ("Tag"), participated in a pilot with strategic partner Sumitomo Corporation to deliver an enriched audience viewing experience for the Rugby World Cup, held from 2 September to 2 November 2019, on Sumitomo's JSports network.
The Rugby World Cup has been an important opportunity for the Group to demonstrate EAI's technology to its strategic partner Sumitomo Corporation and Sumitomo's TV sports channel affiliate JSports. The following are the key results from the pilot previously shared with JSports:
● E-Commerce Implication: highly successful merchandising event for JSports with the pilot providing an effective bridge between audiences and JSports e-commerce merchandising;
● Micro-moments Implementation: successful embedding of the Group's technology in JSports videos to extract video highlights and create "micro-moments" for publication - opportunities for audiences to learn, explore and buy. Examples of micro-moments included fan highlights such as "tries", "yellow and red cards", and "penalties";
● Digital Advertising Revenue Implication: strong yield on published micro-moments. 500 micro-moments resulted in approximately one million fresh views on JSports team pages and 500,000 additional search engine result pages; and
● Brand Implication: significant contribution to jump starting a new marketing campaign (Rugby World Cup) in terms of improving click through rates.
Content Creator Technology Suite
Based on the success of EAI technologies demonstrated at the Rugby World Cup, the Company has now begun a pilot to deploy a suite of proprietary technology tools to its existing content creator network to provide enhanced opportunities for revenue growth in 2020 and beyond.
EAI Group CEO, Todd Carter, commented: "We are excited to get underway operationally. Given the success of our technology implementation and our strong capital base, we are adding to our accomplished technology team and plan to accelerate the delivery of value-add opportunities to our audiences and content creators, as well as to partner audiences and third-party brands. We anticipate that our successful Rugby World Cup pilot will provide us with the launchpad to increase the monetisation and engagement from major sporting events in 2020 and beyond for our customers."
EAI Chairman, Dr. Patrick DeSouza, and EAI Board Observer, Kazushige Sasajima, Sumitomo Corporation, added: "We are proud of the team's work with the Rugby World Cup pilot. Together, we are seeking to build a global digital media platform that will lead the coming convergence of AI technology, short form video content and mobile distribution to enable consumers to fulfill their entertainment demands especially through e-commerce. We have a great partnership and look forward to cultivating many strategic opportunities together."
Contacts
Entertainment AI | Tel: +1 203 654 5426 or+44 (0)7775 701 838 |
Patrick DeSouza, Chairman Adrian Hargrave, CFO |
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Dowgate Capital Ltd (Joint Broker and Research Coverage) | Tel: +44(0) 20 3903 7715 |
Stephen Norcross Paul Richards/Thomas Like (Analysts) |
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WH Ireland (Joint Broker and Nominated Adviser) Adrian Hadden / James Sinclair-Ford / Matthew Chan | Tel: +44 (0)20 7220 1666 |
IFC Advisory Graham Herring / Zach Cohen | Tel: +44 (0)20 3934 6630 |
About Entertainment AI plc
Entertainment AI is a United Kingdom-based technology and media platform company with operations in the United States. The Group combines a network of affiliated creators, a catalogue of streaming content and an audience with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning technologies to provide opportunities to enhance experience and monetisation of videos for the Group's ecosystem of viewers and creators. The Group currently has a network of approximately 10,000 affiliated creators, which have approximately 90 million unpaid subscribers and generates approximately 12 billion views from a catalogue of more than 350,000 videos.