Market was pleased with SEAC's Q3 results -- up 1.5 pts
on 5x average daily volume!
Too bad the CC was marred by technical difficulties with
the phone system - nothing a simple edit couldn't repair...
$0.02/share earnings surprise. Revenue up 21%.
Traditionally Q3 and Q4 have been difficult because of
the seasonality of the ad insertion business, but Broadcast
systems, Movie systems, and (yes) ITV systems produced
39% of system revenue this Qtr.
I like how Bill Styslinger is introducing his management
team to the investment community. Last CC Branko J. Gerovac, VP of Technology R&D, described the features
of the MediaCluster. This CC Craig Taylor, new VP of Broadcast Sales (former regional sales VP for Sony), described how multi-cluster configurations
were an ideal fit for the new broadcast station paradym of "Centrallized casting" , whereby one main station
provides content for subordinate stations, thus realizing
significant operational savings. Bill Stylinger later
said that the industry revenue for broadcast video servers
was about $200m/year - Seachange dominates the high end,
and many companies offering single box solutions are
in a price war at the low end.
Yvette Gordon, VP of Interactive TV (former technical director of TW's Orlando VOD trials) spoke of why she
decided to join Seachange and what she planned to accomplish. (A great speaker-- she could charge
admission for this event!).
ITV market focus on three areas:
1) Open System marketplace (Telewest, Guandong type systems)
2) GI - working with GI, Worldgate
3) SFA - (TWX and Rogers)
Four announced VOD sites
(TWX Austin, Rogers Toronto, Telewest London (not yet
installed), and Guandong in China); Three non-announced
sites; three sites in final negotiaton; five sites
in final round. So what's next? Now that Seachange has built the highly reliable and automated ITV video server. The transition from engineering to deployment has started;
significant revenue starting in Q2 2000 (Bill S.:
we plan to aggressively price this product to dominate
market share).
Next business is Interactive Digital Advertising
(sounds like hyperVIDEO links to ads, infomercials,
e-commerce, etc.) Big opportunity for MSOs generate
new revenue.
------
Q&A
Analysts from BT Alex Brown, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley,
Hoak Breedlove, and Gagnor Howe.
Great quarter. Future is unfolding according to design.
Recommend listening to the SFA cc available from
their site via RealNetworks broadcast to get another
confirmation on the digital interactive tv opportunities. |
