Fox
Kids Europe had another great year! Progress has been made in all business
areas, both operationally and financially, in the face of a challenging
economic climate. Fox Kids has become the most widely distributed children’s
channel in Europe and the Middle East, with a local channel in every
major European market, reaching more than 25 million households in 54
markets. We have also strengthened our position as a major children’s
content provider throughout our markets. In addition, we have developed
a leading online community for children with 17 localised websites and
have built a growing consumer products operation with great upside potential.
Like
many other companies, we had to work harder during the fiscal period.
Yet, we achieved substantial growth in revenues while keeping costs
firmly under control. Our total revenues in the fiscal period ending
June 30, 2001, including our share of unconsolidated joint ventures,
reached $136.1 million, representing substantial growth from the previous
year, as we managed to grow our advertising revenues despite adverse
market conditions. A particular tribute to this success is the fact
that revenues have increased in every geographical market and in each
of our lines of business. The result of this performance is a substantial
increase in profitability, with net income up to $17.1 million and EBITDA
of $53.9 million.
Our
channel group had another year of strong growth, driven by both organic
expansion and new channels, following our recent launches in Germany,
Hungary, the Middle East and Israel. Distribution increased in all markets,
with subscribers up 25% from 19.9 million to 24.9 million as at June
30, 2001. The combination of our localisation strategy and strong content
brought ratings success, as in five of the six markets where independent
ratings data is available Fox Kids is the market leader.
We
have also expanded our library during the period, adding 423 more episodes
and 17 family films. New titles such as Action Man, Flint The Time Detective,
So Little Time, Wunschpunsch, and Xyber 9, now sit alongside established
hits such as Digimon, Power Rangers, Goosebumps, Dennis the Menace,
Spiderman and X-Men.
With
more than 6,000 episodes, we own the European and Middle Eastern rights
to one of the largest and most popular children’s programming libraries
in the world. And, with more than one quarter of it qualifying as European
for broadcasting quota purposes, our programmes are particularly attractive
to terrestrial broadcasters across the European Union, as well as being
valuable to our channels.
The
strength and depth of our library has allowed us to maintain our position
as a leading distributor of children’s programming across Europe
and the Middle East, with programming now supplied to more than 120
broadcasters in 50 countries, up from 36 countries in the previous fiscal
year.
A
two-hour branded block airing during the peak children’s viewing
time was launched on REN TV, one of the largest terrestrial broadcasters
in Russia, reaching 105 million viewers. We also recently launched a
daily one-hour syndicated block via 13 regional terrestrial television
stations in Italy, representing 70% national television coverage and
reaching 14 million households. Our branded blocks strategy on free-TV
channels enables us to increase the Fox Kids brand profile and promote
our various activities.
