ITV

Tag: ITV

  • Britain’s television exports growing from strength to strength

    Britain’s television exports growing from strength to strength

    MUMBAI: British trade body Pact has put out a report on the state of Britain’s television industry.

    Revenues from the export of British television programs rose 21 per cent in 2005 to £632 million. The business was particularly strong in western Europe.
    The top British shows that found acceptance abroad were the Bafta Awards which aired in India on Star World, and Granada natural history documentaries Chimps – The Dark Side and Wild Sex.

    Other British hits include Midsomer Murders, Wild At Heart – the ITV drama starring Amanda Holden – and the business based reality show The Apprentice. Television sales to the US rose by 10 per cent , while there was an 85 per cent growth in western Europe. Agatha Christie’s Marple also featured in the Top 20.

    There was a 31 per cent increase in exports to Germany following a 14 per cent decrease in 2004, while sales to Spain rose by four per cent. The sale of TV formats rose by a healthy 60 per cent to £42 million last year.

    Straight television sales accounted for the bulk of the revenues, with £275 million, a 25 percent increase. Licensing revenues brought in £159 million, a 20 percent gain. Home video/DVD revenues were up 14 percent to £99 million. However, revenues from co-productions fell by four per cent to £52 million.

  • Fun Technologies acquires WorldWinner for $23 million

    Fun Technologies acquires WorldWinner for $23 million

    MUMBAI: Fun Technologies Inc. has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, SkillJam Technologies Corporation has acquired WorldWinner.com, Inc. for $23 million. This acquisition further consolidates the company’s leadership position in the fast-growing casual gaming market.

    Based in Newton, Massachusetts, WorldWinner is a privately held company that specialises in online skill games. It hosts more than 10 million games and awards millions of dollars in prizes every month, with games in five categories: Card (Bridge, Spades), Word (Word Mojo), Arcade (SwapIt, Blockwerx), Strategy (Skillgammon, Cubis) and Sports (Pool, Polar Bowler). An average of 350,000 games are played on WorldWinner daily. For the 12 months, WorldWinner’s unaudited financial statements showed revenue of $10.67 million.

    SkillJam is a multi-channel provider of skill-gaming technology and solutions. It develops and distributes private-label gaming solutions for a broad network of partner destination sites in the US and abroad, including AOL, MSN’s Zone.com, Virgin Games and Lycos. Through its skill-gaming website SkillJam.com, SkillJam offers a wide range of skill games to its over nine million registered users. SkillJam games are also offered over the internet, through wireless applications (mobile) and iTV (interactive television), and on stand-alone kiosks.

    Over the short term, WorldWinner’s products will continue to be offered on its website, http://www.worldwinner.com, but there will be some level of integration in the future with the SkillJam property.

    Fun Technologies CEO Lorne Abony said, “The acquisition of WorldWinner is a significant strategic achievement for Fun Technologies. WorldWinner was until now our largest competitor and by consolidating the two businesses we will achieve significant operating efficiencies, leverage and synergies. Skill-gaming is in its infancy and we believe it makes tremendous sense to consolidate the sector in its early stages to capture market share, increase supplier concentration, enhance distribution and acquire customers at low cost per acquisition. The synergies that exist in merging SkillJam and WorldWinner are enormous, as the businesses are complementary in every way.”

    Fun Technologies president Rick Weil added that acquiring WorldWinner means leveraging economies of scale and significantly growing revenue. Further, Weil stated, “We will acquire millions of new non-overlapping customers, increase our liquidity and offer customers a variety of new online games. We also intend to move quickly to take advantage of the cost synergies which exist in redundant operations.”

    WorldWinner president and CEO Stephen Killeen said, “We are proud to be a part of this merger with Fun Technologies. The consolidation of the two organizations will result in a global skill-gaming powerhouse.”