Private Media CEO Berth Milton Jr. attributed much of the company’s growth to exploitation of its new media sales and distribution division. The unit, which includes mobile, Internet and broadcasting operations, saw a 126 percent spike in sales.
"We're thrilled with the growth of our new media business, and we are extremely pleased that the strategy which we've embarked upon since I returned as CEO is paying off,” Milton said. “Looking ahead, our aggressive approach to the exploding Internet Protocol TV-driven, video-on-demand market in Europe and Asia looks very promising, and we see the overall new media platforms significantly outperforming traditional linear low-margin broadcasting. Going forward, we expect these high-margin platforms to become dominant contributors to operating profit in our overall business model."
Private Media CFO Johan Gillborg said the quarterly results are part of a growth trend that began earlier in the year, with sales for mobile and Internet climbing a combined 77 percent for all three quarters in 2006.
“We expect aggressive growth in this area going forward, and subsequently it will significantly affect the overall growth and operating profit of the company's business,” he said. “Traffic to our Internet sites has been growing steadily during the last 12 months, and in the third quarter we experienced a new record of 2.8 million unique visits. As of Sept. 30 Private's mobile content was available to over 500 million handsets via 59 operators in 28 countries, of which 33 operators went live since September 2005.”