TIDMBOOM
RNS Number : 8862I
Audioboom Group PLC
14 December 2015
Audioboom Group plc
(the "Company" or "Audioboom")
Year-end trading update
Audioboom (AIM: BOOM), the leading spoken-word audio on-demand
platform, provides an update on its key performance indicators
(KPIs) for the Company's fourth financial quarter from September to
end-November and an update on the financial year ended 30 November
2015:
KPIs
-- Listens - as stated previously, the number of "listens" (that
is, the number of times users consume Audioboom content through the
website, the iOS and Android apps, and via the embeddable content
players) is a key metric for Audioboom, as it is the sole driver of
advertising revenue. The Company is introducing this as a KPI for
the year ahead. Total listens for the fourth quarter exceeded 94
million (a new quarterly record), with November setting a new
monthly record of 33 million. Total listens for the year exceeded
300 million (12 months to 30 November 2014: 180 million). Total
lifetime listens for Audioboom content now exceed 700 million.
-- Content partners - 859 new content channels were added during
the fourth quarter, resulting in a total of 6,862 content channels
at the year end. This represents an increase of 60% over the year
(November 2014: 4,293). Notable new partners include: Yahoo!
Sports, News International, EMI, UTV and RadioX. There were
approximately 2,400 active content partners(1) during the fourth
quarter.
(1) Active content partners are those who have posted content
during the quarterly period. A content partner may have a number of
content channels.
-- Registered users - approximatley 4.6 million at the end of
November, with over 275,000 new registered users signing up in the
quarter. This represents an increase of 46% over the year (November
2014: 3.1 million). As with the third quarter, the Company is
encouraged that many of these registered users were added
organically, as it has reduced its marketing spend heavily as it
continues to refocus its resources on the B2B platform expansion.
Given this refocus, this metric is no longer considered to be a KPI
for current external performance measurement and will not form part
of the quarterly updates for the year ahead.
-- App downloads - over 690,000 total mobile app installs during
the quarter (Android and iOS), again driven by organic growth as
the direct marketing spend was reduced. Over the year there were a
total of 2.6 million mobile app installs (12 months to 30 November
2014: 360,000). As with registered users, this metric is less
relevant as a perfomance measure in the short-term and will be
replaced as a KPI for the year ahead, by overall listens.
The Board will consider whether additional KPIs will be
introduced for the year ahead.
Financial Update and Outlook
-- Overall operating performance measured at the EBITDA level
and the financial position for the year ended 30 November 2015 were
broadly in line with market expectations. The year-end cash balance
was c. GBP3.1 million.
-- Revenues increased significantly on the previous year but are
below market expectations. Real growth only began towards the end
of the fourth quarter with revenues in that quarter more than
double the previous three quarters combined and growth is expected
to continue into the first quarter of the next financial year.
Progress with Cumulus was impacted in part by the recent
appointment of a new Chief Executive. She is focussed on their
digital strategy and as their main digital partner this bodes well
for Audioboom, although it will take some time to resume
anticipated growth patterns.
-- The Company has full confidence that additional revenues,
both from Cumulus and elsewhere, will begin to come through in the
early part of this new financial year. This shift in timing and
pace of adoption will have an impact on expected full year revenues
for 2016 although the year is still expected to show substantial
incremental growth year-on-year.
-- The Company continues to target profitability and positive cash generation in 2017.
-- The Company will provide a detailed update on progress with
Cumulus, other revenue generating opportunities and Q1 2016 KPIs in
the final results for the year ended 30 November 2015. This is
expected to be in early March 2016.
Audioboom CEO, Rob Proctor, commented, "I believe that the
tremendous growth in our overall listens figures, for the final
quarter and the full year, reflects our success in becoming a truly
'distributed' media company, that is able to create and, in time,
to monetise listens wherever they occur around the web. Our
continued focus for 2016 will be on commercialisation and
monetisation, improving our platform functionality for broadcasters
and consolidating our position as a leading distributed audio
on-demand media company."
Audioboom Group plc www.audioboomplc.com
Rob Proctor, Chief Executive Tel: 020 7403 6688
Officer
David McDonagh, Chief Financial
Officer
Arden Partners plc - NOMAD and Tel: 020 7614 5900
Broker
Chris Hardie/Ciaran Walsh, Corporate
Finance
Walbrook PR Tel: 020 7933 8780 or audioboom@walbrookpr.com
Sam Allen / Paul McManus Mob: 07884 664 686 / Mob: 07980 541
893
About Audioboom (www.audioboom.com)
Audioboom is the leading spoken-word audio platform for hosting,
distributing and monetising content. Audioboom works with 2,400
broadcasters, content creators and podcasters around the world -
including Cumulus, the BBC, the Telegraph, Sky Sports, the Premier
League, Associated Press, The Sun, NBC Sports Radio, Undisclosed,
Global and Bauer - hosting almost 7,000 content channels.
Audioboom's hosting and distribution platform allows partners to
embed, share via social channels and re-syndicate their content.
Audioboom content receives more than 30m listens per month, and
growing. Additionally, Audioboom works with its partners to
monetise their audio via live in-reads, the dynamic insertion of
pre and post roll audio adverts, and video ads. For more
information see http://choose.audioboom.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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December 14, 2015 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
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