Sheffield subtitle firm Zoo Digital boosted by reopening of productions

Subtitle service provider Zoo Digital expects revenues for the full year to be at least $57m as growth reported in its interim results continued in the second half, the Sheffield-based firm said.

ZOO has secured a strong and growing pipeline of orders across all service lines with the resumption of new productions, which had been on hold due to the pandemic, together with ongoing migration of catalogue titles to streaming platforms and regional territory launches.

The Sheffield-based provider of end-to-end services for the streaming video industry issued a trading update in which it said it expects growth in the second half over the first half of at least 11 per cent and for it to be at least 29 per cent ahead of the second half of 2021.

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Stuart Green, CEO of Zoo Digital, said: "We continue to see strong revenue growth as we extend our order pipeline across all service lines. As major media companies expand their streaming platforms internationally the global spend on film and TV programming continues to rise.

Zoo DigitalZoo Digital
Zoo Digital

"This content must be localised for regional audiences. With these favourable dynamics at play, ZOO's technology-enabled end-to-end service offering positions it well to continue to grow and take a greater share of an expanding market."

The expected revenue growth has been driven by both new territory launches and the return of new productions and as a result, localisation revenues are expected to grow by at least 55 per cent and media services by at least 30 per cent.

As major media companies aim to offer greater volumes of exclusive content for their streaming video service subscribers, global content spend has reached record levels.

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Specialist media analytics firm Ampere Analysis reported that spend grew to $220bn in 2021 and forecasts further growth in 2022.

This is creating significant volumes of original programming that must be prepared and localised for distribution in many countries and languages, resulting in a growing market for Zoo's services.

WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS have launched streaming video platforms in North America and have all announced plans to make these services available internationally in 2022 requiring catalogue content as well as newly produced originals.

This, together with the ongoing roll-out of established global services, will create unprecedented demand for premium localisation and media services during 2022, Zoo said.

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The Sheffield-based firm has been appointed as a primary vendor for the forthcoming European launch of a global streaming video service and expects that this will lead to significant orders commencing in the fourth quarter.

It expects to announce further investments to expand its international footprint.

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