Tiny Zoo Digital has developed software that enables Hollywood studios to get their DVDs to market quicker and at a lower cost.

Zoo has had a relatively long, but largely uncomfortable, ride on AIM since it embarked under the name of Kazoo3D back in 2000. Chief executive Stuart Green, a 16% shareholder, has been at the helm for the most part and, after years of ‘re-focusing’ and ditching its ‘consumer products’, he is optimistic for prospects once again.

‘We have a disruptive technology in a sector where tens of millions of dollars are spent every year,’ he says. This technology automates DVD authoring – a process that Green explains is normally very labour intensive, involving pulling together the film, soundtrack, subtitles, menu, bonus features, etc – and reduces the time spent ‘from ten days to one’.

In July last year, Zoo acquired Scope Seven, one of the Los Angeles players in the DVD-authoring industry, and began to replace the traditional methods with its own. The technology seems to be proving popular with the major Hollywood studios, who are keen to cut costs and get DVDs to market quicker to squeeze out pirate sellers, as Green claims to be ‘ahead of where we were before the acquisition’ and has signed up, among others, Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers.

A recent statement at the company’s general meeting mentioned that it has been trading at a positive level of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) in the first six months of the year, which Green confirms is ‘about 50%’ from the authoring business.

Zoo, which has a range of other software to sell into the DVD and the new Blu-Ray market, looks in line to, at the very least, significantly cut its historical run of losses. Its bombed-out shares may repay a brave speculator.

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Zoo Digital	AIM	£2.45m	11.50p	0.00p
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