Digitalbox (LSE:DBOX) — Final Results

0:00 Good morning and welcome to the DIGITALBOX PLC Final Results Investor Presentation. Today's recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged to be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. Questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. Have the company review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. And I'd like to hand over to Marcus Rich, Non Executive Chairman from DIGITALBOX. Good

0:31 morning. I think we may have lost Marcus' audio. Yes. Marcus, just bear with us one second. As I say, we need just to turn off that camera if we may. Marcus, can you hear us okay? Good morning, everyone, and welcome to DIGITALBOX twenty twenty one annual report presentation. I am Marcus Rich, the nonexecutive chairman of this fast growing business. I will be joined by James Carter, CEO Jim Douglas, COO and David Joseph, CFO, who will take you through the 2021 results in detail.

1:19 What first attracted me to DIGITALBOX was threefold. The quality of the team, you have a really sharp eye for spotting new news driven content that gains really strong reader engagement. Secondly, the creation of the graphene ad stack, which means they can monetize audiences far more efficiently than most sites. And thirdly, the business being in the fastest growth sector in the media market, which is digital and mobile. From my time as CEO of TI Media, DIGITALBOX is far more advanced than most media players, really only future transitioning to digital and mobile at the same pace.

2:06 James, if you could move the slide to the next one. Sorry. I'm briefly gonna go through the results highlights before we go into more detail. DIGITALBOX had a very successful 2021. Firstly, profitable growth through the execution of strategy. For all the key measures, we have seen year on year growth. Revenue is plus 68%, margin and PBT are growing and EBITDA is up plus 233%. Secondly, advertising demand for our brands has never been stronger with increasing revenues per session on all brands.

2:56 Thirdly, a key part of the plan for 2021 was to lessen the company's reliance on Facebook and the team have successfully diversified via customer direct and via Google.

3:11 Acquisition integration success. The team have articulated the buy and build strategy and the performance of the second acquisition, the TAB, highlights the growth opportunities with the right purchases. The first quarter twenty twenty two continues the positive trend from 2021 with a plus 20% year on year EBITDA forecast, which is in line with the current guidance. The continued improvement in the cash position and the success of the TAB spotlight the opportunity for further acquisitions. However, the team are being very disciplined about making the right bids at the right point in the in the company's gestation, and I think that's the right approach.

4:03 To conclude, the business has a strong balance sheet, has successfully expanded its portfolio, and is performing in the right area of the market for further growth. I will now hand you over to CEO, James Carter, to take you through the results in more detail.

4:24 Thank you, Marcus. It's my duty, first of all, really to summarize what DIGITALBOX is in a very simple way so there's absolute clarity on what we do. So we are a pure play digital media business with a pedigree in emerging technologies. Those were the roots of the business that we created. We're a 100% digital and mobile focused. That was very very informed part of our initial development. And we have a strategy to grow our assets, transform our assets and acquire digital assets that have the potential for further growth. We're market leading in many respects because of our mobile first positioning, and we're continuing to show profitable growth.

5:14 The business model is very simple. We own and operate three brands. One, Entertainment Daily, which is The UK's leading TV showbiz celebrity news site another called The Daily Mash, which is The UK's leading news satire site and another called The Tab, which is The UK's leading, again, studentyouth lifestyle site.

5:43 Through these sites, we publish compelling content that attracts valuable audiences really and engages in that content and comes back to visit our websites. During those visits to our websites, we then serve commercial solutions in the shape of advertising and e commerce. And that generally is the shape of our business. So looking forward at the presentation, the presentation should take no longer than half an hour. I'll take you through the brief intro to the presentation. David Joseph will take you through the results and the financials. I'll then highlight some of the key areas that we developed over the year.

6:30 And Jim Douglas will take you through some detail on the brands and how they have been developed. And I'll briefly take you through a view of the future and how that may unfold. So leadership team, without getting into detail on the individuals, we think we've shaped a really powerful leadership team. And there are three key reasons for that. We have a track record as a team in building global media brands. FHM, TechRadar are two great examples of that. Within the board, we have experience of running Britain's biggest media companies, and that's combined with significant PLC experience. And the third point is we have a track record of delivering VC funded growth and exit plans attached to those VC funded businesses.

7:26 So we have the right foundations as a leadership team to deliver on the DIGITALBOX strategy. Just retouching on our mobile first strategy. As I suggested before, we formed a mobile first plan when we were at the early stages of creating the company. We We very much felt that if we got the mobile distribution journey right and profitability journey right, then we would benefit from increased audiences coming through and the benefits of increased revenues flowing onto mobile devices. Both of those facts have proved right. Audiences have continued to grow on mobile. Advertising continues to grow.

8:13 And we've developed technology that's given us a real advantage via our graphene platform through mobile delivery. The last year saw us deliver 180,000,000 visits from women to our sites, which is significant by any level. And the highlights really we recorded through the year were the TAB, which is a fantastic acquisition for us, moved to profitability instantly and over the year repaid over 70% of the cost of acquiring it.

8:50 The audience, as I've already mentioned, was 66% female across all of our assets. And the growth that we saw over the past year went into the public domain as well as UK Press Gazette, not once, but twice named Entertainment Daily as the fastest growing news brand in The UK. And we finished the year in a positive position with £2,200,000 in the bank. To go into the detail, I'll pass over to David Joseph. Thanks, James. Good morning, everybody. This first slide shows the income statement for 2021 and 2020 as per the reports and financial statements. 2021 included the results of all three products for twelve months, and 2020 included the tab for the last quarter of that year, so three months. Despite the shaky start to 2021 as the nation found itself in the grip of the Delta variant, the business had an excellent year delivering revenues of £3,700,000, which is 68% up on the prior year and delivering adjusted EBITDA of just over 1,000,000, which is a quantum uplift from the prior year of three hundred and five thousand.

10:07 Pleasingly, with direct costs remaining static, the gross profit margin increased 10 percentage points to 86%. This significant shift results from increased advertising yields as the market continued to value our audience highly and due to higher volumes which carried no additional direct cost. I steer you towards the adjusted EBITDA figure as the key indicator of the underlying health and strength of this business as everything below this is either noncash financial accounting or nonrecurring. This business is a mobile first digital media business. Hence, it is highly efficient having the create once, use many times model.

10:53 This makes operational gearing high, but as revenues grow, overall costs do not grow proportionately resulting in an increased adjusted EBITDA margin. 2021 saw a doubling of the adjusted EBITDA margin percentage to 28%. And finally, as to earnings per share, we have a positive EPS, another milestone. Next slide, please, James. Segmental, the headline here is like for like revenue growth of 40% and overall revenue growth of 68%. But there is even more positive news when we look at the year on year quarterly growth by product.

11:42 On the right hand side, we can see the Q1 drop the delta variant environment in Q1 twenty twenty one compared to the pre COVID environment of Q1 twenty twenty, but then the recovery increasing in tempo on Entertainment Daily with all three products delivering impressive Q4 year on year growth. This speaks to the momentum and the direction of travel of the revenues. As you can see, overall revenue grew in each quarter and in spectacular fashion with a strong like for like end to the year in Q4. Next slide, please, James.

12:25 Cash generation. One of the most impressive features of this business is its ability to generate cash, and this slide illustrates this perfectly. I've restated the statements of cash flows in order to highlight the cash generated from operations because this is what's really going on in the business, the conversion of adjusted EBITDA into an increase in cash at the bank. You'll notice significant volatility and a movement on working capital in 2021, but this is driven by two significant factors. Number one, the revenues in the last two months of 2021 were £500,000 higher than that of the prior year. This will increase trade debtor balance by £500,000 and therefore presents itself as an outflow.

13:14 Two, the sudden onset of the Omicron variant immediately prior to Christmas provided the perfect excuse for late payment over the New Year period as offices closed once again. In 2020, the situation was almost the reverse. But underlying all of this, our customer base is of good quality. They do pay their bills. The bank balance increased significantly post the year end. Example, it was £2,700,000 at the end of last week. In order to get a true fix on the cash conversion rates, a good proxy is to look at the aggregates of the last two years, and the column on the right does this. This aggregation goes some way to smooth the trade data swings, which distort the real world cash performance.

14:06 Ignoring acquisition and capital restructure costs in 2020, we can see that the adjusted EBITDA conversion aggregates to 90% over the last two years. I expect this to be between 9095% ongoing. So we ended the year with GBP 2,200,000 of gross cash in the bank and the balance on the CBILS loan of GBP 431,000. Next slide, please. Statements of financial position. I draw your attention to six points of note here. Number one, the largest item on the balance sheet is intangible assets, largely goodwill. We consider the carrying value of these items and are comfortable that they are still relevant as the brands we operate were not diminished by the events of the last two years.

14:56 In fact, far from it. They are thriving. The second item, trade debtor increase. This is inevitably a direct result of significantly higher revenues in the last two months of 2021 compared to 2020, but also enhanced in this instance by the impact of the absence of customer staff at work in December due to the Omnicom variant leaving the door open for late payment. Number three, cash at the bank of GBP 2,200,000. Bolstered by underlying trading, it's up 16% on the prior year figure of GBP 1,900,000. The fourth item, net cash. So the cash of the bank minus the CBILLS debt.

15:43 Net cash of GBP 1,800,000 is 29% upon the prior year figure of GBP 1,400,000.

15:52 The fifth point is the business is highly liquid, having GBP 2,900,000 of net current assets, which for a business of this size is very substantial. This is up from 2,300,000 in the prior year. And then finally, the six point, a suite of positive numbers in the capital and reserve section. We now have positive retained earnings. Thanks, James. Thank you, DJ. I could see there are quite a few financial questions coming through, but I think we'll leave them till the end and then point them in your direction

16:33 at the end the end of the presentation. So just looking back at 2021, it was really a year of integration and growth. And I just want to touch on some of the key areas, really, that we developed over that year. Graphene, you've heard the name. Graphene is the name that we give to our suite of technologies that we use to optimize our performance on mobile. The chart to the right tries to demonstrate really how that technology introduces benefits publishing process as we deliver it. So as with every publishing business, we create content, the publisher part of this the published part of the cycle here.

17:24 We set up an ad stack and we put it out to market. As we use our push media strategies in order to engage with the audience, we also use technology to ensure that we optimize the moment in which we push content to our audiences so that we can maximize engagement. When those audiences engage in that content and engage in their feeds, we aim to deliver the best possible user experience through a setup, a server setup that allows for a microcaching experience. And just briefly to explain what that is,

18:06 The first few people that that start to consume a post will get it from the source server for that post. Once it's scaled to a certain level, and if it's popular enough, it will then create a peer to peer micro caching system that allows quicker and quicker scaling. As a result of that, that post then gets higher ranked in the ecosystem of the social platform it's on or within Google Discover because the performance is getting better and better. So that's a key component part of how we ensure that the content is presented to the user in the best possible way that benefits from how we're represented on the various platforms.

18:52 Once that consumer is in front of that content, we undertake what's called a header bidding auction, which is the automated transaction of our advertising units. And the more tension there is in that auction and the more data there is in that auction, the greater the ability to charge more money for those ad units. And we've had great success in the past year using the graphene ad stack to drive value on The Tab in particular and Entertainment Daily and The Daily Match. But The Tab in particular, where we've seen 100% increase Q4 twenty twenty one compared to Q4 twenty twenty. So there are real benefits from the graphene ad stack.

19:39 And then as we go around the circle to the analyze and optimize positions, we use technology really to ensure that we're making the right changes and implementing the right editorial execution,

19:55 the right ad stack as we move around to publishing again. So that gives you a broad idea of what our Graphene suite of technology does. We have invested in it in the past year, and we'll continue to invest in it as we move forwards. But it's a key component part of how we deliver the business.

20:18 Continuing on the theme of session values, you can see from the chart that's on the screen that the light green line is the twenty twenty session values across our business. And you can see at the end of Q1, there was the drop off in Q2 as the pandemic hit. But then there was a fairly strong climb back in Q3 stroke four in 2020.

20:47 What you've seen happen over 2021 is obviously significant growth over Q2 and Q3 compared to the previous year. But most importantly, I think, once the market had adjusted in Q4, we're seeing significant growth over the market adjustment of 2020. So the rates that you can see, October, November, December as an average across our business is significantly up.

21:18 And that's enabled us to grow from an average position in 2020 of 9.39 to over £11.85. We've also spent a lot of time during the year ensuring that we remain strong on more platforms than the social platforms. So the darker green elements of this in 2020 represented of this bar chart on the left represented our social media element of our audience. And as you can see on the right, the bright green or the brighter green elements have grown significantly. This gives us real optimism for further growth as we continue to strengthen our position on Google through SEO and Google Discover, which is effectively the Google alternative to the Facebook newsfeed.

22:14 And Jim will talk more about this later and the great job the team have done in delivering this.

22:23 The other significant opportunity that we began to develop last year was building out a paid subs model on the Daily Mash. Now it's very clear that the Daily Mash has totally unique content, and that's obviously enabled us to extend the daily match offering into television. But it's also an opportunity to explore paid for subscribers on the website. And in the spring of last year, we began a test program just to see if there was an appetite really to go for an ad free model, and support the amazing journalism that the, Daily Mash represents, through paid subscriptions that range from £2 a month to £200 for a lifetime subscription.

23:15 By the end of the year, we've developed without any marketing at all, developed over four fifty subscribers.

23:23 That's really informed our thinking as we moved into 2022. And we began to develop a premium content offering, which again, Jim will talk more about later. But that has now taken our subs following to over six eighty at the current position as we just introduced that a few weeks ago. The TAB acquisition was a significant success. Prior to acquiring the TAB in October 2020, the business had consistently lost money. We remodeled it instantly. I think in in 2019, the business had lost £500,000.

24:12 We remodeled it instantly and made a contribution from it from the first month of ownership. And you can see this chart over the whole of 2021 shows the contribution over the entire year that it's making. And what's most interesting about this is actually the smallest part of the chart where we as a board have all worked across the consumer media industry for a significant amount of time collectively. And it is pretty rare to see businesses in the most difficult part of the year, I. E, January and February,

24:49 make a contribution to profit. So very pleasing to see that level of contribution in January and February really set it up well for the rest of the year. And as we move through the year, we reached the end having paid over repaid over 70% of the acquisition costs for that business. I just want to pass over to Jim Douglas to go through some of our brand highlights. Okay. Thank you, James. Morning, everyone. So we'll start with Entertainment Daily, which is our most established brand and the product that helped us refine the DIGITALBOX publishing model. Its core demographic is 25 to 55 year old women, and the brand's editorial remit is the delivery of fast paced TV and showbiz news with a strong UK focus.

25:46 As James mentioned in the integration and growth section, we've made a conscious shift across the business toward more diversified traffic sources, and entertainment daily has been a key part of that with as you can see here, there's 81% growth in Google and direct traffic. And that's really been driven by some excellent work by the editorial team who are ensuring that their content is engaging, timely, relevant, and optimized. So we're we're really pleased with with with that progress. We've also seen almost 50% growth in session values on Entertainment Daily, which has contributed to the £11.85 company average that James mentioned. As advertisers compete for the attention of this really valuable audience and also as our optimized monetization delivered through graphene enables us to drive the most value from those visits.

26:45 It's always nice to have some external validation, so it was excellent to see the team's hard work. It was recognized when Entertainment Daily was named the fastest growing news site in The UK, two months running by the independent industry source, Press Gazette. And we've also started building the brand's presence on TikTok with writer presented opinion pieces for soap fans, as you can see in the bottom right hand corner here. There are further expansion opportunities for the brand, which James will touch on shortly. Moving on to The Daily Mash. The Daily Mash is The UK's favorite satirical news site, and we acquired it shortly after joining the market in 2019.

27:31 This year, the brand's associated TV show moved from the BBC to a new home on Dave where it became a top three show on its first outing, and it achieved almost three times the average viewership for its time slot. You may have seen the host, Nish Kumar, stepped down after five years at the head of the show. So the hunt is currently on for a new presenter for what we hope, although we can't confirm yet, what we hope will be an autumn series. The tech team also spent some time developing and refreshing the deployment of the graphene platform on the daily mash, and that has delivered even better site performance in terms of speed and user experience. And the new version of the Graphene ad stack has been deployed in the last couple of weeks.

28:22 And lastly, as James mentioned, we saw our testing of a premium subscriber model begin to bear fruit. At launch, this was a really straightforward proposition that just enabled users to get ad free access to the website. But nonetheless, we have had some users paying up to £200 for a lifetime membership. And now we're adding exclusive subscriber only content every day, and we're going to be increasing our marketing activity to support this and build the subscriber base. And then rounding out the portfolio, we have the TAB, which has just enjoyed its first full year of publishing as part of DIGITALBOX. As you may know, the TAB is The UK's largest student and youth culture site. It's powered by an editorial team based in London in their London hub, with journalists working at more than 30 campuses all across The UK.

29:20 So this is a brand that we were really excited to acquire because we felt it had the potential to flourish within our company with the application of our model, and it's had a fantastic first year. Netflix content, as you can see in the bottom left hand corner with that squid game article, is a big part of the content mix. So so to support that, the team have been growing a dedicated Netflix channel on Facebook. And at the end of twenty twenty one, they've managed to grow that to more than 400,000 followers. As James explained, the tab is now also benefiting from the graphene ad stack, and that's been a major factor in contributing to the 121% growth in session values that we saw in q four.

30:07 As you'd expect, the brand is also very active on TikTok, and that has grown past a 150,000 followers from a standing start. So that growth looks really encouraging for us. And and it's also worth noting that as well as the entertainment orientated content that the tab is home to, it also delivers some really strong campaigning journalism. So this year, the team's do better campaign focused on the issue of sexual harassment, particularly from the perspective of students. They surveyed 4,000 students about their experiences, interviewed victims, investigated why only one in fourteen students report instances of sexual assault, and they challenged the universities to do more. So we saw articles from this campaign picked up by multiple sources, including The Times and The Guardian.

30:56 And it's this kind of credible relevant reporting that helps maintain the TAB's position as the most definitive perspective on student life in The UK. That's it from me. Thank you, Jim. Okay. Just to take a quick walk through how we think the future looks. We think we're really well set for the market or the market conditions are really well set for growth. Smartphone is now the first screen with 85% of adults using it to access the Internet. And in fact, adults are spending four times the amount of time consuming the Internet on a smartphone compared to a computer. So a big, big change in the last few years.

31:47 And as those audience eyeballs shift across device from a computer screen to a mobile device, advertising is playing a game of catch up. So that's seeing revenues surge onto mobile devices. The chart to the right really tries to illustrate that. So the bright green bars represents the global ad spend for digital advertising. In 2021, it was $465,000,000,000 and it's forecast by 2026 to reach $683,000,000,000 so growth of 47% over that period of time. And what's particularly interesting within that is the dark green bars. So in 2021, the dark green bar represents mobile advertising spend, which was 60% of the global budget.

32:50 By 2026, not only would have exceeded the entire global ad spend of 2021, But it will have shifted from 60% of digital advertising spend to 70%. So that's really creating a very, very positive dynamic for the area that we're operating in. Looking at our brands individually, then we are going to continue to invest in the portfolio. We've identified new content verticals that we're going to expand Entertainment Daily into. We've already introduced true crime. We're introducing lottery and TV listings as we move forwards.

33:36 We're doing likewise on the TAB, and we're looking to increase our campus engagement. It's a real USP, obviously, for the TAB with its 33 subsites that has across The UK and generally increase in editorial investment on that site. The Daily Mash will continue to drive the premium content proposition and see where we can take the subscription volumes over the next year. And we'll continue to invest and expand expand the graphene technology in order to better service our business as we move forwards. The female focus that I touched on at the beginning does inform how we move forwards. And I think it's fair to say with a 180,000,000 visits, then we have had conversations with some of our key partners. So in the advertising market, we do business with the likes of Google Ad Exchange or Teeds or Unruly, these brands that exist in The UK market.

34:49 There is a significant desire to get hold of more women at scale in the way that we can deliver them. And a focus on that will certainly inform how we move forwards. But it's bringing real benefits to the businesses as our premiums are driving up year on year. So we'll continue to look and continue in a disciplined way to look at opportunities, which we're very keen to bolt on to the business. And the three pools of which we are fishing in, the legacy publisher pool, there are continued opportunities there. First wave digital media businesses, so businesses that perhaps were created in 2010 are going through transformational difficulties as they're moving from quite sort of fragmented distribution strategies as they move from a desktop led journey to a mobile led journey.

35:57 And there are definitely opportunities there. Some we've decided not to pursue in the past six to nine months. But there could be further opportunities coming into play there. And the bedroom start up opportunities will continue to be on the radar as they represent businesses where we can add value from a scale point of view to the proposition and perhaps similar to businesses like The Daily Mesh. So in summary, '21 was a year of profitable growth through the execution of strategy against all key measures, revenue, profits, margin PBT, etcetera. It was all very positive.

36:45 Ad demand for quality mobile audiences seems to be increasing with a particular emphasis there as far as we're concerned on the female audience that we seem to be benefiting from. Growing revenue per session on all our brands is a big objective as we move forward, and we're seeing that filter through over the past twelve months. Diversifying the audience base is absolutely key and gives us huge confidence as we move forward into future years if we can grow a more significant volume of traffic from Google and direct visits as we have in the past twelve months, we'll really be in a very, very strong position as we move forwards. Acquisition and integration success with the TAB, it's absolutely clear that the remodeling of the TAB that we did within the first month is really beginning to pay dividends for the business.

37:44 Having switched it from a 500,000 loss making business to a profitable business overnight, we're now in a position where we can really double down on investing in that and growing that platform as we move forward. So great success story in terms of an acquisition. We've obviously had overperformance in the past year in terms of guidance being exceeded. And we think the guidance that's in the market at the moment, which is pointing to a plus 20% EBITDA for 2022 is very fair. We look to continue to deliver alongside the guidance that's put in place. We will hopefully be moving forwards on acquisitions this year. I can't tell you obviously which or what they are, but we are continuing to take a disciplined approach to any acquisitions that come into view and potential acquisitions that come into view and we'll continue to make the right decisions on those. And it's fair to say, if we're talking about M and A and then the pipeline, which I'm sure we'll get some questions on, but the tab was in the M and A pipeline from the moment we entered the A market in March 2019, and it took eighteen to twenty months in order for it to come through.

39:09 So these things do take time. But when the moment is right, you can have absolute confidence that we'll act. The business is set for a bright future. All the key indicators really are pointing in the right direction. And that has come from really where we set the business up with a view to the future and a view to future proofing the business for further growth. And that, in summary, is really the end of the results presentation for 2021. And I think we now move to questions. That's perfect. Thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated in the top right hand corner of your screen. But just while we come and take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I'd like to remind you that recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A can be accessed via your investor dashboard.

40:05 As you can see, we received a number of questions throughout today's presentation. And thank you to all investors for submitting their questions. If possible, please could I just ask that you read out the question and give a response where it's appropriate to do so, and I'll pick up from you at the end. Okay. Thank you. Yes. There's a question from Paul H. And he's given the excellent progress over the past couple of years. Does the board anticipate the payment of dividends in the short to medium term? There's one for you, Marcus, I think. Okay. Thanks, James. So, Paul, at the moment, the board really considers DIGITALBOX to be a growth stock with significant further headroom. And therefore, our strategy has been to maximize the cash position, but also to build further capacity to raise funds for acquisitions so we can deliver against the buy and build. That's our priority.

41:00 However, that's not to say as we move through the year, the board will regularly consider and look at dividends for the short term. Okay. Thank you, Markus. The next one, I think, you, DJ. Cash resources are relatively strong. Presumably, these are lined up for future acquisitions. Will the company consider taking on debt or larger such such for larger such acquisitions, Charles Shepherd? Yeah. So thanks, James, and thanks, Charles. So the short answer is yes. I think we'd be open to that within reason. So we've got, as we mentioned, 2.7 mil in the bank at the close of play last week and rising.

41:45 So we have surplus cash. We've clearly got the ability to take two to half times our trailing earnings, and those earnings are increasing. So we can add to that pile. And we've got very good, strong, and supportive investor base. So our horizons, available targets, can increase in value. So, we would consider that all within reason because it it has to be affordable and it has to be safe. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. I'm just reading the questions. Pat, you.

42:31 What is the penetration you have for each of the three demographics associated with entertainment daily, match, tab? How much further would you could you go with relative ease? It's always very difficult to say, but I'll try and answer this as best I can. We've seen growth on Entertainment Daily. Entertainment Daily is probably our broadest proposition in The UK market. And there looks like there's a continued opportunity for the kind of news that we create for the 25 55 year old female demographic.

43:18 And there are lots of those women in The UK. We tend to average about five or 6,000,000 uniques on Entertainment Daily every month. But I certainly think there's an opportunity there for growth. And it's really about editorial focus and investment as we move forwards. And as we've already said on the three sites, we think through continued editorial investment, we can grow. But I can't put a number on exactly where the audience will grow to, I'm afraid. Question from Marcus M. Are you contemplating issuing formal guidance for 2022?

44:07 Press release states that current business trends are in line with market expectations, but not much in the market out there. There are there is some guidance out there from a research note from Panmure Gordon. And this is pointing to, off the top of my head, over 4,100,000 revenue for 2022 with 1,250,000 EBITDA on the back of that. There is guidance that's out there. We're pretty comfortable with that guidance and see it as being in exactly the right place for our business at this time. Question for you, Jim, I think, Pat, you can you say any more about engagement with TikTok?

44:58 Yes. So I think this question came in just ahead of the brand highlights. So apologies if I'm repeating what's on the brand highlights. So the the tab is probably the proper the the brand that's most advanced in terms of TikTok just because we think it's the best demographic fit. So but, yeah, they've they've managed to get to a 150,000 followers really just by lots of testing and lots of experimenting and trying to deliver strong editorial opinion on entertainment based content primarily in that channel. Whereas the campaigning work that I was talking about tends to be more on-site and more on Twitter. TikTok seems to work best when it's obviously very easy to digest video opinion pieces.

45:47 We're trying to do the same thing on entertainment daily. I mean, ED's core demographic is older, which is why it's such a good fit for Google and Facebook. But that's not to say that we don't think the ED audience now couldn't couldn't become a bit a bit younger, couldn't reach out to a wider demographic. So what we are finding interestingly on TikTok is that soap fans, there's a whole generation of younger soap fans. Often, people tend to think of people who watch EastEnders and Coronation Street as as all being North of North Of 40, and that's not necessarily the case. So we think that could be a really interesting angle for us to explore on Entertainment Daily. I think the mash Daily mash in all likelihood is more of a stretch to make sense on on TikTok, and we that's why we think that the the TV show is that we that we that we license is the best video incarnation of the Mash the Mash spirit. That's not to say we'd never go there on TikTok on the Mash, but I think we're happy with the TV presence being the moving incarnation of the brand.

47:01 Okay. Thanks, Jim. There's a question from Alastair L. I appreciate your engagement with private investors through IMC, but your brokers don't make available their notes. Think there's a change in the rules coming through. So I believe as of the end of March, then I think the research notes have to be made publicly available. But I'll come back to you on that and whether or not it can be included in Research Tree. Question about female focus and how many women sit in our management senior management team.

47:46 Answer to that is two of our most important executives are female, leading Entertainment Daily and leading the TAB. Question from Marcus. And management very helpfully stepped up communications with investment community. Are there plans for more regular updates? We haven't actually changed the frequency in which we update the market at all. I think it's more a case of the market has responded differently. We haven't done any really any more activity than we would have done over previous years. I think the reality is there's a greater focus and a greater recognition of the value in the space that we're operating in than there was two years ago.

48:36 Something that's been helpful in that respect has been the entry of LAD Bible Media Group that came into the market with a significant valuation in December and is commanding well, relative to DIGITALBOX, incredibly high multiple and also other comparators like Future PLC also qualifying for higher multiples than DIGITALBOX typically. And that's really helped our position. How much do you spend on marketing? It's a change that has taken place over the last few years.

49:26 It's fluctuated, but we spent less in the past couple of years, but we'll continue to increase investment over this year and next year as we certainly invest in marketing around things like the mesh premium proposition. So marketing the marketing line will increase. There's one last question, I think, which is our admin cost rose. There's one for you, DJ, I think. Yes. You can it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Can. So a large chunk of that is obviously going to be operating the tab for a whole year compared to three months of 2020.

50:15 But also in 2020, we suspended any bonuses to be paid due to the circumstances created by the pandemic, and we reinstated those in '21. So that are two largest contributors. So we're not anticipating having costs significantly changing going forward. Okay. Thank you. And I think that's the that's exhausted all the questions that we have. That's perfect. That's perfect. I think you've addressed all those questions you can from investors today. And, of course, the company will review all questions with today and publish those responses on the investment company platform. Just before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to the company, please first ask for a few closing comments.

51:05 Well, thank you everyone for attending today's presentation. We are, as a management team, obviously, very excited by our performance over the past year and our opportunities for 2022. We remain absolutely focused on delivering the strategy that we've laid out in front of the markets. And we really do see there being a significant opportunity for growth as we move forwards. And that really leads us to a point where we would like to be talking to you in a year's time in a much bigger, stronger position. And we remain pretty confident as a team that we will be. Thank you.

51:51 David, Jim, James, Marcus, thank you very much for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations? This only takes a few minutes to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team at DIGITALBOX PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all. Thank you.