VITA.L Regulatory News (VITA)

13 Jan 2006 07:00

Cellcast plc13 January 2006 Press Release 13 January 2006 Cellcast plc ("Cellcast" or "the Company") Trading Update Cellcast plc (AIM:CLTV), a global interactive digital broadcaster, todayprovides a trading update for the 12 month period to 31 December 2005. The Directors are pleased to report strong performance in both trading andbusiness development during 2005. The Company is confident of exceeding marketexpectations for the year ended 31 December 2005. UK operations and programming continue to build a strong audience base andviewer participation, in a media landscape being reshaped by the convergence oftelevision, mobile telephony and the Internet. The Company's proven business model is generating new sources of income and isattracting new broadcast partners worldwide. Cellcast is pursuing market entrystrategies across five continents and recent developments include: China Cellcast has entered into a new joint-venture with Shenzhen New Power TechnologyLimited to develop and distribute interactive television entertainment for theChina market. A key strength of the joint-venture is New Power's nationalbilling agreements with China Mobile and China Unicom. The first programme developed by the joint venture is a daily reverse auction, 'Bid2Win', broadcast on TVS-3, one of the leading entertainment channels inGuangdong, China's richest province. 'Bid2Win' is also accessible via theInternet and China Mobile's WAP portal. China has the world's largest mobile phone market, with more than 377 millionmobile phone subscribers, an average of 29 mobile phones per 100 people. China has seen tremendous growth in the usage of SMS, and it currently accountsfor one-third of the world's SMS messaging. According to Pyramid Research, by2007 SMS revenues in China will escalate to £9bn, generating greater revenuesthan all of Western Europe. As China Mobile and China Unicom struggle withdeclining average revenue per user (ARPU), SMS and MMS are gaining momentum as adriver of revenues. According to China Mobile, the country's leading telecomoperator, in the past year its users sent over 700 million short messages a day,and revenue from data business now accounts for 20% of China Mobile's totalearnings. John Cheng, Chief Executive of Shenzhen New Power Technology Limited, said "Significant revenues from premium mobile content are being captured by Internetportals such as Sina Corp, Sohu and NetEase. However, the penetration oftelevision in China is many times higher than that of the Internet, and the TVstations are keen to share in the mobile entertainment market. Cellcast'sformats and applications are attracting the strong interest of majorbroadcasters in China." Europe : Ukraine Cellcast Ukraine, a new subsidiary, has partnered with STB, one of Ukraine'sleading terrestrial broadcasters, to launch a new interactive quiz show 'King ofthe Mountain', which is broadcast seven days a week. Cellcast is providing the technology, graphics, formats and all intellectualproperty for the show, as well as training production personnel and consultingon the ongoing format development. The show launched on 19 December, and initial ratings and traffic are verystrong. Andriy Tyulenev, Commercial Director of STB, said "Cellcast'sinteractive TV formats offer the benefit of driving strong ratings andgenerating significant incremental revenue opportunities for STB." The Ukraine has an estimated general television audience of about 40 million.Cellcast Ukraine is also currently pursuing commercial discussions with othernational and regional broadcasters about launching several new interactivetelevision formats in the Ukrainian market in 2006. South America : Ecuador Following its successful entry into the Argentine market, the Company isextending its roll-out in South America. On 20 December it launched Ecuador'sfirst participation-TV show, and initial ratings have been very strong with anaverage audience share of 19%. 'Insomnia' is being broadcast nationally onEcuador's number one TV channel TeleAmazonas. One of South America's smaller nations, Ecuador's two and half million mobilephone subscribers have the highest per capita use of SMS texting in the world. Having successfully opened up the market, Cellcast is reviewing opportunitiesfor launching several more interactive formats in Ecuador during 2006. Conclusion Andrew Wilson, CEO of Cellcast plc, said "Cellcast continues to demonstrate itsability to move quickly and effectively in response to new market opportunities. Content and formats already proven in the highly competitive UK TV market arebeing syndicated to an increasing number of broadcasters worldwide. In additionto recent progress in Eastern Europe, South America, India and China,significant new initiatives are underway in France, Greece, South-East Asia,Central America and the United States and we retain a confident outlook for2006." - Ends - For further information:Cellcast plcAndrew Wilson, CEO Tel: +44 (0) 20 7190 0300andrew@cellcast.tv www.cellcast.com Daniel Stewart & Company PlcMarc Young, Corporate Finance Tel: +44 (0) 20 7776 6550marc.young@danielstewart.co.uk www.danielstewart.co.uk Media enquiries:AbchurchHenry Harrison-Topham / Tania Wild Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7700henry.ht@abchurch-group.com www.abchurch-group.com Notes to Editors: Cellcast plc is a leading international provider of participation televisionapplications and interactive mobile content in the fast-growing multi-platformdigital entertainment sector. Headquartered in London, with associatedoperations in Paris, Beirut, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires, Cellcast'sapplications and programming are distributed on the Sky Digital platform in theUK and broadcast partners include Canal+ in France; Future TV, LBC, MBC, DubaiTelevision and Rotana in the Middle East; Telefe in Argentina, and Zee TV andStar TV in India. Cellcast's revenues streams are independent of both advertising and subscriptionfees. With a network of revenue sharing agreements with telecommunicationscarriers and aggregators across five continents, Cellcast receives a share ofthe call revenue every time a consumer uses a mobile or fixed-line phone toparticipate in its interactive entertainment, revenue which is retained orshared with its broadcast partners. Cellcast's programme formats andproprietary Interactive Platform (CIP) also facilitate delivery of content tomobile phones, the internet and broadband-delivered IPTV. This enables viewersto continue participating in a programme away from the TV, generating 24/7revenue opportunities. Cellcast plc joined the AIM market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange on 21September 2005. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange