REG - Digitalbox PLC - Pre-Close Trading Update and Notice of Results

DigitalboxAnnouncement

09/01/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 0089Z  Digitalbox PLC  09 January 2024

9 January 2024

 

Digitalbox plc

("Digitalbox" or the "Company")

 

Pre-Close Trading Update and Notice of Results

 

Digitalbox plc (AIM: DBOX), the mobile-first digital media business, which
owns Entertainment Daily, The Daily Mash, The Tab, The Poke and TVGuide.co.uk,
is pleased to provide the following trading update ahead of the publication of
its results for the twelve months to 31 December 2023. The Company expects to
announce its results on 26 March 2024.

 

Digitalbox expects to deliver results in line with full year market
expectations. The challenges experienced in the year including a difficult UK
advertising market and the major platforms restricting publisher traffic are
easing. The restrictions placed on Entertainment Daily for Google-sourced
traffic have been resolved with a return to more normal traffic levels from
November 2023. Furthermore, the Company's most recent acquisition completed in
October 2023, TVGuide.co.uk, is working well within the Digitalbox operating
model and the Social Chain pages acquired in September 2023 are performing in
line with expectations and providing ongoing audience amplification.

 

As a result, Digitalbox expects EBITDA* for the year ended 31 December 2023 to
be in line with the most recent market expectations and to see a return to
more positive trading in 2024. As at 31 December 2023 the Company had more
than £1.9m in gross cash.

 

James Carter, CEO, Digitalbox, said: "2023 was a turbulent period. We faced a
depressed advertising market driven by the macroeconomic environment and some
algorithmic platform issues which have affected many publishers. These
platform issues particularly impacted audience levels for our leading brands
Entertainment Daily and The Tab. Despite these challenges, we continued our
strategy by acquiring TVGuide.co.uk and focused on maximising the performance
of our existing portfolio. This is evidenced by The Poke acquired in December
2022, which has repaid over half of its acquisition costs while trading well
through a difficult year."

 

"Looking ahead, TVGuide.co.uk provides a major expansion opportunity in future
years. After an extensive re-engineering process to bring the brand onto our
Graphene platform, we are seeing encouraging traffic and revenue performance
coming through. We are mindful of the continuing difficult economic conditions
but we have confidence from the regaining of Entertainment Daily's Google
audience and a steady return in the ad market as we move through 2024. From an
audience perspective, the business has diversified its traffic sourcing to a
point where it is now fundamentally more evenly balanced than at any point in
the Company's history. "

 

*All EBITDA figures quoted are for Adjusted EBITDA, defined as the operating
profit after adding back depreciation, amortisation, impairment, share based
payments, acquisition costs, direct costs associated with business
combinations and capital restructure costs.

 

 

Market abuse regulation: This announcement contains inside information for
the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 as it forms part of
UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR").

 

 

Enquiries:

 

 Digitalbox                                                  c/o SEC Newgate
 James Carter, CEO

 Panmure Gordon                                              Tel: 020 7886 2500

 (Nominated Adviser, Financial Adviser & Joint Broker)
 James Sinclair-Ford / Ivo Macdonald
 Rupert Dearden / Rauf Munir
 Leander  Capital Partners (Joint Broker)                    Tel: 07786150915
 Alex Davies

 SEC Newgate (Financial Communications)                      Tel: 020 3757 6880
 Robin Tozer / Molly Gretton                                 digitalbox@secnewgate.co.uk

 

 

About Digitalbox plc

 

Based in the UK, Digitalbox is a 'pure-play' digital media business with the
aim of profitable publishing at scale on mobile platforms.

 

Digitalbox operates the following trading brands, "Entertainment Daily", "The
Daily Mash", "The Tab", and "The Poke", and "TVGuide.co.uk". Entertainment
Daily produces and publishes online UK entertainment news covering TV,
showbiz and celebrity news. The Daily Mash produces and publishes satirical
news content. The Tab is the UK's biggest youth culture site fuelled by
students. The Poke expertly curates and editorialises the funniest content
from around the web and social media. TVGuide.co.uk is an established
dedicated interactive UK TV listings brand.

 

Digitalbox generates revenue from the sale of advertising in and around the
content it publishes. The Group's optimisation for mobile enables it to
achieve revenues per session significantly ahead of market norms for
publishers on mobile.

 

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