Zodiak Hails Record Quarter

STOCKHOLM, May 7: Zodiak
Television kicked off 2008 with a record first quarter, posting a 51-percent
rise in revenues to SEK 355.6 million ($58.8 million), with net profit more
than doubling to SEK 24.7 million ($4.1 million) and operating profit up from
SEK 12.4 million ($2.1 million) to SEK 31.9 million ($5.3 million).

Announcing the results,
Zodiak’s CEO and president, Patrick Svensk, noted that the company was revising its EBIT margins for the year. “Zodiak
has previously stated that the EBIT margin target for 2008 is at least 10
percent. We feel so confident in our forecasts that we now instead state the
following: Zodiak’s aim for 2008 is to reach an operating profit of SEK 150
million.” Operating profit for 2007 was SEK 61.2 million.

By revenues, Russia is now
Zodiak’s biggest market, accounting for 31 percent of the business, versus 26
percent in the same period last year. In second place is Sweden, contributing
17 percent of revenues versus 25 percent last year. Revenues from the U.S. and
U.K. accounted for 14 percent, as did sales in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Other key markets are Denmark, Finland and Norway.

By genre, entertainment
accounts for 48 percent of Zodiak’s revenues, up from 32 percent last year.
Drama and comedy are also contributing more, with the share rising from 17
percent to 31 percent. Contributions from factual entertainment, however, fell
from 39 percent to 13 percent, and the news and docs share fell from 10 percent
to 8 percent.

The company’s biggest
customers in the period were Channel One in Russia, Discovery U.S. and U.K., TV
Norge in Norway, TV3 in Denmark and MTV3 Finland, contributing 45 percent of
all sales.

—By Mansha Daswani