Strong revenue and profit growth         Power Rangers, represented by Disney Consumer Products, performing well         Pucca licensing agency agreement improved and extended on the back of strong performance	Sonic X developing well across the region         Home entertainment significantly increased sales as new management structure has improved focus

“Consumer products has performed well, driven by strong sales from Power Rangers and home entertainment.”

We exploit our consumer products properties through a dual strategy. We have an in-house division, Jetix Consumer Products (JCP) which represents almost all of our properties, and we have leveraged the global reach of Disney through Disney Consumer Products (DCP) to distribute our global hit property, Power Rangers, and through Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) to distribute some of our biggest selling home entertainment titles.

Power Rangers has again grown strongly with our royalty revenue from DCP up more than 40%. Retail sales have increased in all of the major European markets, and more than doubled in Germany and Italy8. Action figures remain the largest category, and despite strong competition from Star Wars, Power Rangers ranked in the top five properties in four of the five major markets. There has also been a focus on developing new products outside of the core areas, and this has led to strong growth in a number of smaller categories, including youth electronics and communications, sports toys and ride-ons. Power Rangers has also become firmly established as a core franchise within the Disney stores.

Within the properties represented by JCP, Pucca and Sonic X have been particularly strong. Pucca has developed into a uniquely distinctive brand with strong categories including fashion and apparel, as well as stationery and accessories. Following its success as a consumer products property, Jetix is developing Pucca into a TV series. Together with securing the Pucca TV rights from Vooz, we have extended our consumer products licence period for a further 20 years, ensuring that we benefit from the value created by the TV exposure. The terms of our agency representation were also improved.

Sonic X, our recent major acquisition, has been licensed across a wide range of territories. The master toy license is developing well with product launched across the region, and the character has been signed for a broad range of merchandise. On the back of this success we have increased the range of rights we are representing.

The Jetix brand has also demonstrated its potential and strong early recognition by establishing itself as one of our leading licensing properties. Jetix branded items include magazine publishing, CD compilations, supermarket promotions and the use of the Jetix logo on a range of items from cycle helmets and bean bags through to ice cream.

The performance of our home entertainment business has been a notable highlight, with a strong performance from both our in-house operation and the titles distributed by BVHE (Power Rangers and a number of our Marvel titles). Power Rangers has maintained its perennial popularity, and the Marvel titles have increased sales, leveraging the interest generated by the release of the Spiderman and Fantastic Four theatrical movies.

Within JCP, a dedicated unit has been set up to focus on building our home entertainment activities. This new division has had an excellent start, more than doubling revenues year on year. This success has been driven by both new and library titles, Sonic X has been licensed in 24 countries, including four of the five major European markets, and there has been a significant increase in multi-property deals where a number of our library titles are licensed together as packages.

We have continued to expand the range of properties we represent and during the period have taken on the rights for our new “mystery” live action series, and we also control the consumer product rights within our region for our major co-production Oban Star-Racers.