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UPDATE - Motive Television hails operational successes

Published: 14:53 30 Jun 2015 BST

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There are around 156mln tablet devices in use in the USA - more than one per home

---ADDS COMMENTS FROM CEO---

Motive Television (LON:MTV), the digital television solutions provider, focused most of its firepower last year on making 2014 “mobile product year”.

The company succeeded in its main objectives of launching beta versions of both TabletTV US and TabletTV UK in December 2014, and preparing the ground for its bring your own device (BYOD) TV product, it told investors in its full-year results statement.

With the focus very much on development of its TabletTV product, revenue was virtually flat year-on-year at £1.14mln while administrative expenses ballooned to £11.24mln from £2.52mln the year before, as the company established distribution channels and manufacturing resources.

An £8mln write-down in the value of its acquisition of Motive Television SL five years ago, loss before tax deepened to £12.53mln from £3.01mln in 2013.

Leonard Fertig, Motive’s chief executive officer, revealed to Proactive Investors that the write-down was based on the advice of the auditors, and indicated the company was being conservative in taking non-cash impairments.

His advice to shareholders was to look beyond the numbers and focus on what the company had achieved operationally in 2014 and in 2015. 

"I am proud of what we achieved. We set out to develop two products and actually developed three. We are now poised in so many ways," Fertig said, hinting at partnership deals that are in the works.

Motive said it embarked on the strategy of focusing on TabletTV in the full knowledge that it would take some time for the product development to generate revenues.

“The soft launches of Tablet TV in the USA and in the UK were completed successfully. Additionally, new markets were identified during the year and technology to exploit these was developed; commercial implementation of these commenced after the year end,” said Michael Pilsworth, chairman of Motive.

Fertig, meanwhile, said that by switching its attention from providing “over the top” (red button) services for the television viewed in the family lounge to TV viewed on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, it is going with the flow of market trends.

“Motive is in the midst of the industry storm and our products and software innovations are the subject of countless discussions as major players seek to find their way,” Fertig said.

The company said the target for TabletTV worldwide by the end of 2018 is 250mln users. Fertig said the company is preparing for the roll-out of TabletTV in the US and the UK, and is in "serious conversations" with some heavy hitters in the media world - "names you will have heard of", Fertig promised - to support the roll-out.

Meanwhile, the BYOD TV technology, which allows people in remote locations such as on board ship or oil rigs to watch TV, is gaining traction.

So far, the technology has chiefly been picked up by ferry companies operating around Greece and Italy, but Fertig said the company is looking to get the technology adopted by major cruise lines.

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