One Media IP's first-half profits fall

Half-year profits fell at One Media IP, but the digital content and intellectual property provider hopes to reposition its core music business and invest in TV.

Turnover fell 29% to £1.05m, while profit before tax declined by 56% to £118,721 for six months ended 30 April 2016.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 42% to £224,143.

Still, the company declared an interim dividend of 0.071p per share, in line with the previous year.

One Media IP exploits intellectual property around music and property and aims to redirect the company away from downloading to streaming music to reflect the change in the music industry. The company expects this change to affect the rest of the year and into the beginning of next year with recovery expected in the first quarter of 2017.

The company has invested in its technical copyright analysis tool (TCAT), which is being tested by two major music companies. TCAT searches out tracks on legitimate stores on behalf of content owners.

The company has also invested in video content on its YouTube channel Men & Motors and hopes to license a motoring show.

Chairman and chief executive Michael Infante said: “Our long-term view is that of a continued repositioning of the group’s content in the changing digital marketplace and one of fresh initiatives that bring new areas of monetisation to the company.

Infante added: “The music industry in the UK as a whole shrank by 1% last year and that’s with all the big chart hits, major spend on video campaigns, concerts, film and TV shows and the reintroduction of vinyl records, which is like the Stevenson Rocket being put back into service for National Rail.

“Our continued TCAT development program and TV aspirations are important to the company as will a return to content acquisition as the market realigns. The mission remains the same, exploit intellectual copyright, whether it be content or brands or technical software development. We are a strong team, well-motivated and with a confused market ahead of us, what more could a company ask for?"

One Media IP’s shares were down 11.52% to 3.65p at 1200 BST.