Arts Alliance's Thomas Høegh
Anyone who has been following the motion picture exhibition industry for the past few years should know that digital cinema is not for the faint of heart nor light of wallet. Just ask Thomas Høegh, the founder and CEO of London based Arts Alliance, the parent company of Arts Alliance Media, a leading European integrator.
Last week I was forwarded a copy of an article about Mr. Høegh and Arts Alliance Media which ran in DagensNæringslev (or Today’s Business), the biggest business trade paper in Norway. Translated to English, the headline reads “Red Figures On All Screens” and the sub-headline stated:
Thomas Høegh’s film company Arts Alliance Media has lost a total of NOK 258m over recent years. Accounting figures for DVD company Love Film also shows a three-digit one million kroner deficit.
It’s always fascinating to see how mainstream media outlets cover the worldwide exhibition industry’s transition to digital cinema, especially when they turn their attention to the equipment vendors and service companies facilitating the conversion. Despite the superficial and often naive approach most outlets take when writing about the subject, the DagensNæringslev piece was interesting in that it detailed Arts Alliance Media’s finances by boiling down the company’s 2009 annual report.
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Popularity: 13% [?]
There is a standing joke in the industry that to make a small fortune in digital cinema you need to start with a large fortune. Sadly, this sentiment seems to be vindicated by the latest quarterly figures from Cinedigm (formerly AccessIT). The company’s scorecard is impressive enough:
And the revenue has been going up year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter, as the press release proudly trumpets:
Access Integrated Technologies, now doing business as Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. (“Cinedigm” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: CIDM), reported a 10% increase in year-to-date revenue to $65.1 million, and a 6% increase in revenues, to $22.7 million for the fiscal 2009 third quarter ended December 31, 2008, versus the year-ago periods. The Company posted an Adjusted EBITDA (defined below) of $11.0 million or $0.40 per share, an improvement from the fiscal 2008 third quarter of $8.4 million.
But is there any profit? No, the company is still burning through money. $17.4m in losses in the most recent quarter to be precise. What are the implications of this? The 10-Q transcript makes for grim reading; Read More »
Popularity: 50% [?]
As European digital cinema integrator XDC continues to negotiate potential virtual print fee (VPF) deals with Hollywood studios they are definitely signaling to the industry that they want to be prepared to move fast once such deals close. In a press release dated January 14, 2008, XDC announced that it was forming an official partnership with Film-Ton-Technik (FTT), the German based cinema services company. This seems to be a bit of an upgrade from their previous relationship labeled a “co-operation” by FTT.
XDC and FTT have been working with one another to install digital cinema equipment on 170 screens in Germany, Poland, Austria and The Netherlands. This represents just about half of XDC’s 350 installations.
What does this mean for XDC? Read More »
Popularity: 16% [?]
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