Dori Media Reports Year-End Results

TEL AVIV: Group revenues at Dori Media Group for 2009 were down 3 percent to $48.7 million, with an increase in TV channel revenues helping to offset declines from the sales of telenovelas.

Dori Media reported a 16-percent increase in revenues from TV channels to $34.4 million from $29.7 million. Drivers of this business were the movie and entertainment TV channels with Israeli cable platform HOT, the operations in Indonesia and the Viva and Viva Platina TV channels in Israel. Telenovela broadcasting and format rights revenues, meanwhile, fell to $13.1 million from $18.4 million. Plus, video, music CD and ancillary merchandising businesses reported lower revenues of $700.000 from $1.9 million. 

Nadav Palti, president and CEO of Dori Media Group, commented: “Although the last quarter of 2009 showed a significant increase in activity and interest in Dori Media’s programming and content, 2009 was a challenging year. Continued caution by program buyers in an uncertain economic climate meant that contract negotiations tended to be much more prolonged than they normally would have been. We expect to book some revenue during the first half of 2010 for deals we were expecting to close in 2009. Our revenue stream is diversified and our productions are attracting a great deal of interest across numerous territories. Substantial investments made in Dori New Media, on projects such as Novebox.com, cross platform telenovelas such as Amanda O, Split and uMan are paying off."

Palti continued: "Our TV channel revenues remain very strong and continue to grow, thanks to multi-year agreements for the carriage of TV channels in Israel and Indonesia, with the latter proving to be a particularly strong growth market for the company. Despite the investments mentioned above, our cost base did not grow during 2009, and like many other companies, we have introduced several cost cutting measures, including at senior management level, to ensure we protect our bottom line and maintain high margins. Members of Dori Media’s Board and Management also continue to purchase Dori Media stock, signaling their confidence in the company. This confidence has also been reciprocated by the equity capital markets through successful completion of two rounds of financing through the markets during 2009, in the form of two private placements, both of which were priced at a significant premium to the company’s market valuation.

He concluded: “We are therefore confident that 2010 will be a strong year for the company and Dori Media is fully focused on generating maximized returns for all our shareholders.”