Zinc Media Group (LSE:ZIN) — Annual Results

0:01 Good morning, and welcome to the ZINC Media Group PLC Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it received during the meeting itself. However, the company will 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. I'd now like to hand you over to Mark Browning, CEO. Good morning, sir.

0:34 Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Good to have you along, whether you are new to the ZINC story or or back here to hear sort of what we've been up to since we last met on this platform not long ago. So good to have you with us. Thank you for your time. At the start of 2022, I laid out our strategic priorities saying that we would deliver to market expectations. Our broker reissued forecast last year. We would deliver strong organic growth, and we would try and scale if we found the opportunity through acquisition. And all three of those were delivered in 2022. So looking at our highlights for the year, we have exceeded those market expectations.

1:21 We'll just thank you. We've exceeded those market expectations, delivering that highest revenue for ten years or so within the group and a positive EBITDA. So revenue increasing 72%, just over 30,000,000. It was 17 and a half for those who remember back in 2021. The market expectation for last year was 26. So 30 was a good result at adjusted EBITDA, very small profit, but 400,000 ahead of that market forecast, which actually had us at a loss. So pleased on revenue and adjusted EBITDA. It's clearly a long way to go yet. But we're reporting, for the first time, our revenue quality.

2:06 It's something that, we increasingly feel investors need to understand more about, and also the visibility we have, the good visibility we have on our pipelines looking forward. So this is partly to sort of miscrerect a bit of a misrepresentation that ZINC's revenue is short term, that TV revenues are short term. We've been working very hard in the last few years at building that long term returning customer base. So 80% of revenue in f y twenty two was delivered from existing customers. That's up from just under 70% in in 2021. And the pipeline for this year is very strong. At the end of April, we have more forward bookings into this year than at any time in the last five years, possibly the last ten, but certainly the last five.

2:56 The Edge acquisition is going very well. They are performing ahead of those expectations we had when we made the acquisition, which is good news for them and us and their people and our staff and for investors. They generated 13,000,000 of revenue last year, and we'll come on to a bit more detail on them in a moment. And the outlook is really good for 2023. We're very positive about it. We are currently sitting on 26,000,000 booked for this year. That compares it's 13,000,000 more than at the same time last year. So very encouraging start to the year, and we're on track, all things being equal, to deliver the best financial performance at both revenue and EBITDA this group's had for over a decade if things continue as they have started.

3:48 So I just wanna talk a bit about the product, actually. I won't play any videos this time, but we have completely transformed the product offering. It's the product ultimately that drives the growth of businesses in creative sector like ours. So let me start. I just wanna give you one week, a one week snapshot from two weeks ago, the week prior to results. On Monday, we were the front page of the Radio Times. We were leading a lot of the national conversation on television with our documentary

4:19 Bowel Babe, the Dame Deborah James story. This was everywhere. It was front pages of all the listings magazines. It was on the radio show, talk shows. It was on a lot of the TV review programs, magazine shows, and so forth. Overnight on Tuesday, we were awarded the production company of the year at the New York Film and TV Awards. First time the company's done that, and thanks in part to having the edge in the group, but also a combination of our TV businesses as well. Start of the week, TURN launched their new series on BBC one, the doctor ZAND health show, the daytime series con or cure. Midweek saw channel four announce another ZINC program, which will transmit towards the end of this month called gender wars.

5:09 It is a wonderful documentary on the very complex issue of transgender identity.

5:17 Thursday, something completely different. The BBC announced their Eurovision lineup, and get your Eurovision on from Rex is part of BBC's coverage of Eurovision. And then on Friday, UK TV announced another one of our our programs, which was which is gonna be the Blackadder Lost episode. It's forty years, would you believe, since Blackadder first hit the screens, and this documentary from Red Source will talk to the cast and crew about the pilot that never got shown and why it never got shown. And now I just thought that was a wonderful snapshot of just a week. What an amazingly rich rich set of of TV programs. A really broad range from the NewZinc. Add to that list, earlier this year, we had the Putin versus the West documentary, which really did lead the national and international conversation back in January. We've had bargain loving Brits, largest ever commission, over £7,000,000 into the group. The launch of Atomic TV, our new Bristol based TV label, and, of course, our first direct to consumer podcast, the Tony Robinson cunning cast podcast as well. So loads of new initiatives, but I just thought one week, the week before last, there aren't many TV production companies, if any, that have that range of breadth and depth creating such a noise in The UK TV marketplace as ZINC.

6:39 Come back to the product in a minute, but let's go straight to the results. Will, why don't you pick up on on these? Yeah. So we feel that we've made really excellent progress, so exceeding market expectations at both revenue and EBITDA level in 2022. So revenue grew almost 13,000,000, a 72% increase year on year, and we generated 30,000,000, which was around 4,000,000 ahead of market expectations. I'll come back to the revenue mix and gross margins and revenue quality a bit later. An adjusted EBITDA level, that improved by $700 to a small profit. That was $400 ahead of market expectations.

7:24 And there was strong performance in the second half of the year with an EBITDA profit of $700, which, again, we have found very encouraging. Our cash remains buoyant. So 3,600,000 as at year end, 4,600,000 as of mid April, and 5,400,000 as of today. So we've got sufficient cash to do what we want to do and to to grow the business. It's also worth noting that we've continued to invest in new businesses during 2022. And the returns from the eight new businesses that we've launched in the last three years are going to start to accelerate this year and next year. And Mark will explain the shape of the group and how much of it is new in the last three years.

8:17 So this slide in front of you is our sort of new visual representation of the group. It now comprises 12 businesses, of which eight are new since we joined a few years ago. It really is a it's it's a completely different group under the bonnet to the one that existed pre COVID. We're a content production group, still anchored very much in television production. So on the left, as you look at it, is one of the two original television production companies, Brooklapping. This business makes those big reputational feature documentary song, which I just talked about. So Bowel Babe, the Dame Deborah James story for the BBC, that was Britlapping. Gender Wars, that's coming up for channel four, Putin versus the West, Again, Britlapping. Those very, very noisy

9:10 big feature documentaries come from Britlapping. That's what we call Intelli Specialist Factual. Atomic, this is new. This was launched at the start of this year. It's Bristol based. Bristol, for those that don't know, is renowned for making specialist factual programs, the likes of David Attenborough's Blue Planet. It's where the BBC's natural history unit has always been based. So Atomic TV, Bristol based, will make science and history and travel and action sort of adventure outdoor TV. They've already been commissioned, for their first pilot, for a US broadcaster. So we have high hopes for them 2024 onwards, I suspect, for that TV label. Turn, one of our established labels, been around for many, many years, been part of the group for five or six years, makes specialist factual television, but they're broadening out into factual entertainment from Scotland and Northern Ireland. Rex, we'll see there just along from Tern established last year, 2022.

10:11 Red Source, we launched that in 2020, focused both of those are focused on factual entertainment. So this is where bargain loving Brits or naughty Tories for channel five get made. That's prime time. That's evening slots. It's higher tariffs than daytime. So both new. Super Collider also new, launched in 2021. Now Super Collider Super Collider starts to straddle television and and brand. So the likes of Red Bull, the TV that we make for Red Bull that is commissioned by Red Bull that sits on Red Bull TV rather than a a traditional TV channel and on social is made by Super Collider, the same for Lego. So they're making television content, but it's but not for traditional TV channels.

10:57 Then we're into content commission for brands and businesses. So that's where ZINC Communicate starts to kick in. That's where the Edge sit. They make films for brands and for corporate, entities. And then we move along the continuum towards audio and post production. So Bumblebee, we launched last year, which is our post production offering both for internal use and to the wider market. So all of this, you can see as a content continuum, really. It it all sits on the same workflows. All of that content for all those 12 businesses relies on the same production facilities, the same edit suites. It's all supported by the same finance team, the same HR team, the same technology team. So there's that spine now that allows all these businesses to operate. And new businesses, as we launch them organically or as we acquire them, can come and sit on this infrastructure that allows economies of scale as we grow.

11:53 Let's talk about the revenue growth for last year. So all the investments have started to see accelerated revenue growth, up 72%, just over 30,000,000. All 12 businesses growing. We've lumped them together there under TV and ZINC MEDIA PLC and the Edge. 80% of this revenue coming from existing customers. Some some are still obviously in their investment phase, others more mature and contributing to profitability. Just jumping into television, giving you a spotlight on what television looks like along with the other businesses. So TV growth, doing very well. Lot more headroom to go. Four of these six TV businesses are new. You can see them there listed across the bottom. New in the last two years. Still in investment space, still growing well.

12:42 Completely transformed this TV offering, very refreshed offering to the marketplace, new people, much more diversified range of programs. So we've got Space Jump, that documentary from Super Collider, for Red Bull charting the, the fall from space of Felix Baumgartner. BBC One documentary there, Tom Daley, Illegal to be Me, getting that high end reputational feature doc, the Hug and Loving Brits from channel five, the new Martin Compton series for BBC Scotland, the Lego production, and then Sunday morning live, BBC One every Sunday after the Laura Kunsberg political show comes from Turn TV. That was new last year. And then along the bottom there, you've got Spooked for UK TVs, really. So really good range of of television programs. They're vastly diversified and growing very well.

13:35 ZINC Communicate.

13:37 So ZINC Communicate, again, growing 40% year on year, fast growth, still subscale, not yet contributing to bottom line growth. They make four four sort of product areas, branded entertainment, corporate films where there's some crossover with the edge, the trade digital publication business, and then audio, radio, podcasting. A little bit on the edge. So we acquired them last year, August time, going really well. They grew 58% year on year. That is their best ever performance in 2022, comfortably ahead of the sort of expectations we had at acquisition.

14:24 Good for them. Definitely good for ZINC as well. It's a case of rising tide here, floating all boats. A healthy and performing edge is good for all of us. They generated 13,000,000, 1,300,000 of profit before tax, of which, if you look at that little sort of blue box, 5,800,000 of revenue was was in under the ZINC ownership and $700 of profit before tax hit our numbers for full year '22. That's what's included in the group accounts that you've seen reported last week. So the edge is doing really, really well along with all our businesses. So let's jump to the financials. I think we'll let Will pick up here and take us through a bit more detail on the on the numbers. Okay. So from a revenue point of view, we are a 30,000,000 turnover group on a pro form a basis, I. E, if the Edge had been part of the group for a full year in 2022.

15:25 And of that, TV is about 55% of the group, and content production for brands and businesses is about 45%, and that's where ZINC Communicate and the Edge sit. From a repeat customer's point of view, so the the middle column in on on here, this really speaks to revenue quality. So we don't have lots of long term contracts, but we do have a considerable amount of repeat customers, which is which is really valuable. And so they may not buy the same content each year, but due to the strength of our relationships and the quality of content that we produce, they come back year after year. So with the Edge, over 80% of their revenue is from repeat customers, so from blue chip companies such as Deloitte and and Network Rail, and it's the same in TV.

16:16 Over 80% of revenue is from repeat customers. That's from all the major broadcasters, BBC, channel four, channel five, etcetera. In ZINC communicate, that's a lot newer, and so repeat customers there will increase as it grows organically. In terms of gross margins on the right hand side, so we've got a mixture of gross margins in different parts of the group. A lot is over 50%, considerable amount of TV production is over 30%, and some TV production is under 30. We've increased gross margins in recent years. Firstly, with the acquisition of the Edge, and they make over 50% gross margins. And then within TV, and that's where we've invested in edit suites and in people to increase the margins on most of that content from well under 25% a few years ago to over 30% now.

17:12 And in 2022, we decided to scale further by investing in winning some high volume, lower margin contracts. And that's really to gain a foothold in in new markets, albeit at a slightly lower margin. So for example, in daytime TV with bargain loving Brits and then in live TV with our Sunday morning live show. And they provide the opportunity to win additional contracts in those markets in the future. They also provide opportunity to increase the margins on that business as well as we go forward. And these contracts can provide a a significant amount of gross profit because of their scale. So it really shouldn't be overlooked when thinking about the percentage market margins.

18:01 You know, it's really worth thinking about that amount of that kind of pound value that's coming through as well. So, you know, as as an example, a £7,000,000 contract, let's say, a 20% gross margin still generating 1,400,000 of gross profit into the business. And then continuing on gross margins. So as you can see, they remain strong. And in 2022 at 34%. They're notably ahead of prior years in 2019 and 2020, but they're down on 2021 due to this strategy to add these higher volume, lower margin contracts in strategic areas. But adjusting for those, margins have risen by 2% to over 40%, which is shown in pink on the right hand side.

18:55 In terms of organic revenue growth, I. E, all the businesses excluding the acquisition of the Edge, organic revenue is up 7,000,000 or almost 40% year on year. That's in part driven by established businesses, the bottom of here. So Tern and Brooklapping and Publishing, all of which have been running for twenty plus years, and they have grown at 20% year on year.

19:27 The new businesses in the in the purple have been launched in the last three years and include the various TV labels and new businesses in ZINC communicate. Revenue from those new businesses have almost doubled in size to 9,000,000. And these new businesses are starting to generate returns. They're not all profitable yet, but their profitable profitability will improve this year and next.

19:57 Right. So let's just look at the rest of the year and, you know, a little bit beyond 2024 potentially. So for this year, you know, we're really in a really strong position. We've got a very healthy pipeline. So at this stage of the year, we are comfortable with performing in line with with those brokers market forecasts, which are in the public domain. They've set market expectations at around 36,000,000 of revenue and 1,000,000 of EBITDA profit. So at the end of April,

20:30 you can see on here, we had booked 26,000,000 of revenue, which we expect to be recognized in our accounts this year. That's the purple box in front of you. We then have a further 6,000,000, the green little green box next to it, of what we're calling highly advanced revenue that sits on our pipeline. Now that means it's either it's probably with business affairs, being contracted or it's in the final stage of a of a budget conversation. In some cases, actually, it's already in production, which is waiting for the paperwork to be returned. So then it can move to join the purple column, as reported as being booked. So at the end of April, we we're in effect on 32,000,000 of revenue that's booked and expected to be recognized in our accounts and highly advanced for this year against the market expectation of 36.

21:21 That's 13,000,000 more than the same time last year, which is why, we're comfortable trading in line with those expectations for this stage of the year, but feeling feeling like it's very, very doable. So one thing I wanna do is just give you a a sort of helicopter view, a wider perspective on the ZINC story over the last few years. I joined in the second half of twenty nineteen, so we've barely been in post six months when, obviously, COVID hit us all. Those are the gray bars that you can see on the slide in front of you on this chart. The blue bars represent revenue, and the red line represents the EBITDA profit or or in most years a loss.

22:08 So behind the blue bars are then three colored bands. There's a sort of reddy pink band, an orange band, and a green band. So red is up to 30,000,000 of revenue. Orange between thirty and sixty, and the green is 60 plus revenue. So in the past ten years, ZINC has been subscale. I it's been under 30,000,000 of revenue and mostly loss making at the EBITDA level.

22:39 The last sort of healthy profits were when revenue was over 60,000,000, a green bar, which is 2010. Now very different business in 2010. So regardless of kind of type of business that we are now, the point of this slide is to really remind us all of the importance of scale, especially in a business with a relatively, you know, fixed cost base and the cost associated with public listed and so forth. So we're now at this inflection point for scale and profitability. We're into that orange section for the first time in a decade.

23:19 So after ten years of sort of being subscale, we now talk about the business being at initial scale where we can talk about profitability again. That purple area, that that purple dotted box to the right of your screen is f y twenty two and twenty three and '24. So this investment in organic growth during the the last three years, the two COVID years and 2022, along with the acquisition of the Edge last year, has got us to this inflection point. So as, you know, as growth continues, those businesses there's eight new businesses growing and doubling last year and those really high performing heritage businesses growing at 20%.

24:06 As all that starts to flow through to the bottom line, it will start to drive profit in f y twenty three in this year and next year too. That should mean that we we perform in line with those market forecasts. And if we deliver f y twenty three the way that it's shaping up to be, that will see this group deliver its best revenue, its best EBITDA profit since, well, over ten years ago. And that's the objective. We're singularly focused on delivering that bottom line profit. We gotta get the EBITDA profit up. As that grows, that will flow through down to operating profit and so forth. But you can see that, really, the organic growth story with that acquisition has got us to this initial scale. Clearly, we need more of that and to get to to the green opportunities where we are $6,070,000,000 pound turnover group will require good strong organic growth.

25:05 And as opportunities arrive, accretive acquisitions. So just to sort of conclude, product wise, I think it's the best shape it's been in. We have these big, reputational, noisy, talk about TV that's getting the country talking, whether that be Putin or Balbabe or Tom Daily, alongside these big, returnable, commercial, popular factual TV shows like Bargain of in Brits, Sunday Morning Live, Space Jump, Get Your Eurovision on. So it's a really good product offering that's driving that growth position. One thing I I am keen to show you remind everybody is that you can keep in touch with all of this news, you know, across the group now.

25:51 We are we are much, much better, pretty good at pushing out all this news all the time. Every time there's a new show on air, every time there's a new win, you pick it up either on our website, on the news section, so zincmedia.com/news, or on LinkedIn if you tend to find that as your preferred platform, or follow the group on Twitter. All our labels, all 12 businesses, all comes together through

26:13 those sites, and you can see at any one time what's going on in the group. So as we look ahead, I think we're about to see that we're at that inflection rate. We're gonna see good profits start to flow through in the coming three years as we've reshaped the group over the last three years. It's it's a very different group. 75% of what we do in our businesses are new. 75% of our people are new and have joined the journey recently. So delivering in line with market expectations is the critical thing, which we're doing, trading strongly so far this year. Acquisition of the Edge has been excellent for them, for ZINC, for our investors, and there really is plenty of headroom now that the profits we can see the profit trajectory coming through. So I think on that note, we should, if there are any, take some questions.

27:02 And we can jump around. Happy to Mark, Will, thank you very much for your presentation this afternoon. And if I may just bring back up your cameras. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. Just while the company 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 by our investor dashboard. As you can see, we have received a number of questions throughout today's presentation, and thank you to all investors submitting their questions. Could I please ask you to read out the questions and give responses where appropriate to do so? And I'll pick up from you at the end. Alright. I will do. But we'll just start from the top with feeling, shall we? So here we go. You mentioned new high volume you mentioned new high volume contracts contract wins being part of your revenue mix.

27:53 How important are these in your strategy? How do they drive do they drive profitability? So this was, I I think, from Will's slide, showing the different margins. So look. The the these high volume returnable, often multiyear contracts are critical because we will go for those where they they have a strategic opportunity. They present a strategic opportunity to us. So for Sunday morning live, for example, we have won that contract, but we won it with a with a coproduction partner because that product partner brings live experience. But it is a two year deal, and we feel that that capability, that sort of daytime, regular, weekly, high profile show allows other conversations, other opportunities to be presented to us.

28:44 So is it right to trade a little bit of margin to get that coproduction partner work going and to get the opportunity? I believe it absolutely is because those multiyear contracts when you win them, subject to the client still needing that kind of product, mean that they should return and return. Same with something like Bargain Loving Brits. I mean, significant scale. Over a 150 episodes have been commissioned for that. That's there aren't many production companies that can do it, but it's a big number. Therefore, it is a big gross profit even if it's slightly percentage wise lower than you might get if you did a single show for a $150. But think about it. You've gotta win an awful lot of other work to make up that that gross profit that you win from one show, and it carries risk as well as development cost. You've got to actually develop the ideas, pitch them, and win them. So when opportunities come along at high volume, they present big gross profit opportunities even if the percentages get slightly changed as a result.

29:46 Hopefully, that's answered that one. You've a second question here. You've launched lots of new businesses in the last few years. Do you see this continuing? No. We're not at the rate. No. We have launched eight businesses in three years. We will not be launching another rate in the next three years. So what we want to see is those businesses rapid growth phase, which we're seeing, and then we want to see them starting to contribute to profitability. That's the critical thing. But clearly, without the rapid growth, you can't get to the profitability. So while they're growing heavily, growing fast rather, we're gonna stick with them even though that they are will be suppressing, and they did suppress our profits in f y twenty two. And they'll suppress them a bit in f y twenty three as well as that growth continues, and then they start to contribute this year and next year.

30:39 We we will still look there are still one or two opportunities we think in the market that we could exploit where we can hire people. As Will says, we've got a good balance sheet. So if those opportunities arise, we will look to do that because that will support the organic growth story in 2024, 2025, 2026. Things we do this year will feed into next year and beyond. And that is a trade off that we go on a journey of rapid growth, make sure we can deliver growth at EBITDA level, profitability starts to come through. But keeping an eye on the long term so we can really get this thing up to the scale we've shown you on that on that sort of helicopter view chart. So that's that one. Next one is why do you think the edge is growing so well?

31:27 Will, do you wanna take that one? Yeah. I'll take that. So, I mean, in in the full year 2022, the Edge generated 13,000,000 of revenue, 1,300,000 of PBT. And previously, they haven't generated more than 10,000,000 of revenue in a year in their thirty year history. So they are performing very well indeed. And the question is why? So in large part, it's due to a strategy that they put in place actually pre COVID that they're seeing the fruits of now. So they focused on growth markets of learning related film content, particularly in The UK and also in the The Middle East market, both of which are really kind of hungry markets for quality content and where the edge making kind of premium content and where they've already got an excellent reputation has really helped. So if they carry on at the the the rate that they are in terms of revenue and and profits, then the edge management team are gonna be up towards the top of their their earn out, and that would be great news for for them and great news for the for for the for the group. So, you know, we think that they're in a really good place and, you know, really fitting in well with with

32:59 the group and and what we do. Alright. Let's take another one. I'm just reading them in order they come in here, so so I'll just keep going. Should investors be concerned about further diluted equity issuance. No. I don't think investors should be concerned about that because well, let's just just understand what investors we talk about. We've got two broadly two constituent type of investors. We've got the large institutional investors, which make up 80% of our share register. And then we've got employees, and we've got smaller high net worth or or retail investors. So when we bought the Edge, we had to raise for that and issue shares and raise cash.

33:48 And everybody had the chance, small private investors through to large institutions to take part in that. So in effect, to hold their corner, to retain their corner. All our institutional investors, that 80%, don't want to dilute, because they believe that the value creating opportunity is is increasingly visible, and the value will will come as the business starts to deliver that that bottom line profit we talked about, that we can now see the journey towards, probably with more clarity, certainly more clarity than we've ever been able to see it so far. So I don't think anyone needs to worry about that. You know, our strategy is organic growth with these investments using our own strong balance sheet with supportive, accretive on day one opportunities.

34:37 So that that is a good good position for any investor to be in providing that they can take part. And, of course, every everybody makes their investment decision in the moment based on that particular opportunity. Some choose to pass. Almost all choose to take part. So I don't think there's anything to be concerned about now. The next question. What are the cultural challenges of the rapidly of rapid expansion plans? Considerable is the short answer. We we we do have to invest in in that central core, particularly around people, culture, training, integration, office environment, HR support. And, you know, these things often are slightly ahead of the curve.

35:26 So that's that's part of the suppressed position we're in that is starting to unwind this year and next, and last year to a degree. So there are a lot. It's a lot of time and effort that needs to be spent. They need a good strong management team, a very clear communication structure, an increasingly resourced HR department to make sure that when companies join, whether they're organic companies, those eight new ones, or an acquisition, that they can quickly feel comfortable being part of this group. And the group has a clear set of values. One the things we're working on is is really the big question is what is the value proposition? What does ZINC MEDIA GROUP stand for? We're very clear what our labels stand for, and I think we'll increasingly get clear and articulate the narrative of of the mothership. What is ZINC here for? What does it offer to all these businesses? What's our creative position in the marketplace?

36:16 So thank you for that. It's a it's a it's a it's a very live conversation internally. Next question. Will, I'm gonna throw this to you. Do you have sufficient working capital to grow the business? Yeah. We absolutely feel that we do. And so whether looking at cash, you know, the end of last year around 3,500,000, a few weeks ago, 4.5 or around kind of 5.5 now, that is that is that is enough to do what we want to do. As Mark said, we've, you know, we've invested a lot in the last three years, and that rate of investment of launching eight new businesses in the last three years isn't gonna continue. We launched Atomic at the beginning of this year. We may launch one or two more in the in the in the next year or two, but that rate slows. So one of the main things that we need working capital for is around the the timing of payments and receipts and to help to manage that. And when we're running big production, £7,000,000 productions, the milestone payments can be fairly chunky.

37:30 And so managing the timing of that is is critical and something that we're very alive to. But having a good few million in the in the in the bank to be able to manage that means that we're we're we're confident that we've got what we need. I think it's worth reiterating also that that our clients do you know, we do get cash flows during production. There are clear milestones, whether it be signature of contract or going into what we call in our trade principle photography then and then deliverables and then the paperwork at the end. It's all laid out in advance because challenge is when those things flex a bit. But the the the principle is that we're cash flow through production. Next question. Any update on your progress with the big streamers?

38:20 So, you know, we do have a a healthy pipeline of business in proportion to the amount that the big streamers buy original production from The UK. The PSBs, the public service broadcasters, are still in in volume terms, in number of hours of originated UK factual production are still vastly ahead of any streamer in terms of The UK commissioning market. There are tens of thousands of hours of television commissioned original commissions in The UK factual market from the PSBs versus a few hundred hours from the streamers from The UK sector. So you've gotta prioritize carefully. And I know, you know, they they tend to dominate certainly the narrative in our sector, but they don't dominate the volume of commissioning.

39:14 So we are trying to respond to that proportionally, make sure that we are not investing a lot of time and money and effort on a small opportunity, albeit when it's commissioned, produces big returns, but that we're proportional in our allocation of resource and investment. And so, yeah, I think there's plenty of chances of those coming through. We've had one or two in our recent history, and there's plenty in the pipeline. But it's proportional to their ability to commit. You know, there are a few tens of hours that, for example, Amazon commissioned in factual in The UK. So you gotta be careful where you place your chips. Another question is, is the market for talent still inflationary? In some areas, it is still inflationary.

40:03 Production management, they're the people who oversee once a commission is made, who oversee the making of it. That was that was very, very hot last year, very difficult to get people. And as a result, the lack of supply meant that rates were very inflationary. That's easing off now in that particular part of our business. So I think what we're actually seeing, and we talked about this last time, is that the we we weren't initially. We said we there would be a delay in being able to pass on inflationary costs to clients. That was end of last year when we knew inflation was running very high, well, it still is running high, but we couldn't then pass that on partly because a lot of that that negotiation had happened, and then inflation kicked in, of course.

40:51 What we are seeing, though, positively now is that clients are responding in their budgets to the reality that costs for making television have gone up, travel costs have gone up, overseas filming has gone up, accommodation costs have gone up, food on-site has gone up, some rates went up, and clients are starting to respond. Thankfully, when we were negotiating budgets now, they are recognizing some of those costs have gone up and responding accordingly. So I feel that we're now over the worst in terms of getting over that inflationary hump. I think that's all. I think we've answered all of them unless anyone wants to throw in a last minute question. Mark will. Thank you. And I think you've addressed all those questions you can from investors. And, of course, the company will review all questions submitted today, and we will publish those responses on the Investor Meet company platform.

41:38 Before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company, Mark, could I please just ask you for a few closing comments? Right. So well, I I think that's the takeaway here has to be that we are delivering in line with market forecast, market expectations. The profitability is starting to flow through. The acquisition of the Edge has been excellent, and there is plenty of headroom in this group for growth and for profits to flow through this year and next year and beyond. So, again, thank you all for your time. We appreciate your interest in following the company and the questions, and do follow us or contact us directly if you wanna hear more. But thanks for your time this morning.

42:27 Mark, Will, thank you for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of ZINC MEDIA GROUP PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. Good morning to you all. Thank you.