Pilat Media announces new contracts with Sky Italia and TV4 (Sweden)
Press Release: 29 April 2004
Pilat Media Global plc (AIM: PGB), the London-based supplier of business management software for TV broadcasters around the world, announces two new contract wins with Sky Italia, Italy's leading satellite broadcaster, and TV4, Sweden's leading commercial television company. The upfront value of these contracts is estimated at approximately £2.4 million including licence fees for the use of IBMS (Pilat Media's Integrated Broadcast Management System) and implementation and customisation support services. Additional, recurring revenues are expected post "go-live" from ongoing maintenance and support services. With Sky Italia and TV4, Pilat Media now has over thirty clients globally.
Sky Italia, owned 80.1% by Newscorp and 19.9% by Telecom Italia, was created a year ago following the merger between Telepiu and Stream. Sky Italia will be using the complete set of IBMS's modules to support all its programming, promotion and advertising sales operations, covering over a hundred digital subscription and pay-per-view channels. The implementation of IBMS at Sky Italia started in 2003 under a letter of intent and is assisted by Accenture, the global system integrator. Sky Italia follows a number of other leading satellite-based broadcasters - BSkyB, Sky Network Television (New Zealand), Yes (Israel), Sky Latin America, Astro (Malaysia) and FOXTEL (Australia) - in using Pilat Media's systems.
TV4, the leading free-to-air commercial television company in Sweden with a 60% market share, is Pilat Media's first Scandinavian client. TV4 is also Pilat Media's first client to use IBMS only for its adverting sales functionality, using another system for programming. This will enable Pilat Media to test and refine IBMS's modular design, paving the way for similar opportunities in the future. TV4 operates a diverse offering of television services including four TV4 channels and a 16-station local TV broadcast network. IBMS will need to support this structure which offers a very wide and complex advertising product assortment, from the large maximum-reach campaigns on the main TV4 channel to small local campaigns.
Avi Engel, Chief Executive Officer of Pilat Media Global plc, said: "Winning contracts with leading broadcasters such as Sky Italia and TV4 further solidifies our position as a rising force in the global market for new breed business management systems for broadcasters. These two new and important clients, being quite different in nature, exemplify the diverse requirements of needs IBMS can meet and therefore the wide spectrum of new business opportunities Pilat Media can pursue. We are pleased to have been able to sign these new contracts so soon after the successful share placing of £5.2 million announced on 6 April."
-Ends-
For further information: | |
| Pilat Media Global plc | |
| Avi Engel, Chief Executive Officer aengel@pilatmedia.com | Tel: +44 (0) 20 8782 0700 |
| Martin Blair, Chief Financial Officer | |
| John Larrabee, VP North America jlarrabee@pilatmedia.com | |
| Shore Capital | |
| Alex Borrelli / Graham Shore alex.borrelli@shorecap.co.uk | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7408 4090 http://www.shorecap.co.uk |
Media enquiries: | |
| Abchurch | |
| Heather Salmond / Chris Lane heather.salmond@abchurch-group.com | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7700 http://www.abchurch-group.com |
Notes to editors:
Pilat Media is a UK company, currently 150 strong, operating from headquarters in London and offices in the USA, Australia and Israel.
Pilat Media's IBMS (Integrated Broadcast Management System) is a new generation software system for managing the business of broadcasting. It is the world's most comprehensive solution, designed to maximize revenues and reduce costs by integrating airtime sales, content programming and media trafficking across an unlimited number of different channels or stations, regions or even countries, all under a single centralized, scalable and digital ready system. Al these have been historically serviced by several, typically dispersed systems. IBMS' functional breadth, depth and flexibility to suit all types of broadcasters are unrivalled, making it the first truly global system of its kind.
IBMS' first version was originally developed by Pilat for BSkyB, to support their fast growing multi-channel programming needs. Pilat Media was established in 1999 to further develop and market the system as a generic product. IBMS's scope was subsequently more than doubled by adding the advertising sales functionality in partnership with Network Ten of Australia. Since then Pilat Media has rapidly established itself as a rising force in the market for business management software for broadcasters. Today, Pilat Media's software solutions have been selected by 35 broadcasters in Europe, North America and Australasia, representing a wide spectrum of business models, organizational size and transmission technologies - digital and analogue, on terrestrial, cable and satellite platforms. Additional clients include CTV (Canada), Discovery (International), five (UK), TV New Zealand, Playboy (US), Sky Italia and TV4 (Sweden).


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