11 September 2025

Zinc Media Group plc

("Zinc Media", the "Group" or the "Company")

Interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2025

Zinc Media Group plc (AIM: ZIN), the award-winning television and content production group, is pleased to announce its unaudited interim results for the six months to 30 June 2025 ("H1 2025").

Commenting on the results, Mark Browning, Chief Executive, said:

"The Group has delivered excellent results in the first half, growing revenues by 72% compared to same period last year, delivering a £0.9m adjusted EBITDA profit and a profit at the adjusted PBT level. We have expanded into new genres and territories, delivered projects of unprecedented scale for our business, and earned international recognition for our work. Looking ahead, £38m of revenue is already secured for recognition in FY25 with a further £4m at a highly advanced stage in our pipeline for this year. 

Our H1 performance reflects the success and impact of the transformation plan we initiated in 2020 and is being powered by some of our biggest ever contract wins ever and most talked about TV programmes in the world.  The strategic progress made in the period also strengthens the deliverability of our medium-term targets of £50m revenue and £5m EBITDA."

Financial Highlights

·      Record H1 revenue of £22.9m (H1 2024¹: £13.3m) from continuing operations.

·      Highest Adjusted EBITDA² profit of £0.9m (H1 2024¹: loss of £0.7m).

·      H1 Adjusted Profit Before Tax³ of £0.2m for first time in half year, (H1 2024: loss of £1.3m).

·      The statutory loss before tax from continuing operations decreased by £1.3m to £0.6m (H1 2024: £1.9m).

·      Raw Cut, which was acquired in Q4 2024, is operating in line with acquisition expectations.

·      Gross margin of 37% was down 5 percentage points (H1 2024: 42%). This is due to the Group diversifying into new genres and winning new business in quiz formats, events and entertainment which have the potential for long-term growth and lucrative high-margin IP revenue streams in future years. Gross margins are expected to return to over 40% in FY26

·      Cash of £4.2m at 30 June 2025 (June 2024: £4.1m and Dec 2024: £6.3m) remains robust and provides the Group with sufficient working capital.

·      Net cash of £0.7m (June 2024: £0.6m).

·      As at 5 September 2025, revenue won and expected to be booked in FY25 is £38m, which is £7m higher than at the same point last year, with a further £4m that could be recognised in FY25 in highly advanced discussions.

Operational and Strategic Highlights

·      Raw Cut, which was acquired in Q4 2024, has integrated well and is performing in-line with acquisition expectations.

·      The Group is confident in its organic growth strategy, which is focused on three growth pillars: Entertainment television production, Middle East business expansion, and IP (intellectual property) and format-led revenues. Significant progress was made in each area during the period.

o  In Entertainment the Group filmed and delivered its first quiz show format The Inner Circle for BBC One and secured funded development for a potential prime time entertainment format. Newly launched business Electric Violet has developed £11m of pipeline opportunities for FY26 onwards.

o  The Middle East is the focus of significant business development activity with opportunities worth £10m are currently in discussion in FY26. Investments in people and facilities have also been made.

o  In IP, investments have been made in the Group's rights database and a new direct-to-consumer strategy which will be rolled out through H2. In addition, the Group is targeting a further £1.5m of high-margin IP revenue by 2028.

The strong H1 performance, alongside a healthy pipeline and clear organic growth strategy, puts Zinc in an excellent position to deliver 33% revenue growth for FY25 and underpin confidence in mid-term targets of £50m revenue and £5m EBITDA.

1.     Prior period comparators are stated excluding discontinued operations

2.     Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA before Adjusting Items comprising share-based payment charges, gains on disposal of fixed assets, reorganisation and restructuring costs, acquisition costs and contingent consideration

3.     Adjusted PBT is defined as PBT before adjusting items and acquisition-related costs (amortisation and interest on unwinding of intangible assets related to acquisitions).

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About Zinc Media Group

Zinc Media Group plc is a premium television and content creation group. The award-winning and critically acclaimed television labels comprise Atomic, Brook Lapping, Electric Violet, Raw Cut, Rex, Red Sauce, Supercollider, Tern Television, Tomos TV, along with Bumblebee Post-Production, and produce programmes across a wide range of factual genres for UK and international broadcasters.

Zinc Media Group's commercial content creation unit includes The Edge, one of the UK's largest brand film-making companies, renowned for its work in the Middle East and Zinc Audio, specialising in podcasts and radio production.

For further information on Zinc Media, please visit www.zincmedia.com

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

H1 has seen the Group has grown revenues substantially year on year and deliver a profit at the adjusted PBT level.  Zinc's profitability is typically weighted towards the second half of the year due to the cycles of business development and production, but in 2025 the business has increased first-half adjusted EBITDA by £1.6m, delivering an adjusted EBITDA profit of £0.9m and profit before tax for the period.

Zinc has also reached creative milestones, winning commissions in two new genres: Entertainment and Events. Tern's quiz format The Inner Circle was filmed for BBC One earlier this year.  Elsewhere Zinc had another 'first' when it delivered Supercharged 2025, an industry event for AI professionals held in Abu Dhabi and hosted by G42.

Zinc's creative ambition and newly diversified slate are bringing new formats and significant volumes of IP to the Group, creating long-term opportunities. It also brings critical acclaim, and the Board was delighted to see Rob and Rylan's Grand Tour, for BBC Two, win the BAFTA for best Factual Entertainment, while Zinc was named Production Company of the Year Worldwide at the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards for the third consecutive year.

The international nature of this award is emblematic of Zinc's growing global presence. Zinc's clients include global businesses such as HSBC, Qatar Airways, Saudi Aramco and Disney-owned National Geographic. Its content is distributed to over 150 territories worldwide, and the company has recently strengthened its international presence through further investments in the Middle East. These opportunities will support further improvement in Zinc's revenue diversity, building on the 48% of group revenues derived from outside the UK in 2024. Further revenue diversification will come from Zinc's strategic focus on generating and monetising IP.

The Board would like to thank the management team, employees and freelancers for their professional and dedicated work, and our shareholders for their continued support.

Christopher Satterthwaite

Chairman

CEO'S REPORT

CURRENT TRADING, STRATEGY AND MARKET OUTLOOK

Zinc delivered an excellent H1 performance, with record adjusted EBITDA profits of £0.9m.  Strong H1 revenue growth of 72% year-on-year was driven by our television businesses, boosted by nine H1 projects, each with an order value of over £1m+ and averaging £2.3m each. This move to fewer, but larger scale contracts mirrors changes in the wider TV production market with broadcasters commissioning, 'fewer, bigger, better' projects. 

H1 saw the Group win new business from all three of our strategic priority areas of Entertainment, IP led formats and the Middle East. 

·      Race Against The Tide is a new BBC reality entertainment format. This multi-million pound commission was filmed in H1 and pits a series of contestants against each other and the incoming tide, in a competition to build the best beach sculptures.

·      The Inner Circle is the new BBC ONE quiz show with Amanda Holden.  This was filmed in Glasgow in H1 and is expected to hit our screens this autumn. Over 300 crew worked on the bespoke set for this production. The commission was hard won after 2 years of development.

·      Supercharged is the Group's first event production in the Middle East and was worth £2.5m. It was tendered in March and delivered in June and involved over 300 crew and over 1,000 attendees. Zinc is uniquely placed to capitalise on these opportunities due to our production reputation in the region and these can come into the Group at short notice.

All three of these commissions diversify our revenue base and move Zinc into new three new strategic growth markets.  We've invested heavily over the past few years to win this business and while these first productions typically come with lower margins than our established genres, they represent the right short-term trade off in order to deliver long-term organics growth.  As a result, gross margins will be lower this year than last year's record 45% but we are confident that these growth pillars can generate an additional £10m of turnover in the years ahead and move the group towards £5m EBITDA.

Bigger and more diversified productions of the highest quality

The quality of our work has never been higher, and we were delighted for this to be recognised by BAFTA for Rob and Rylan's Grand Tour and by the International New York Film Festival, who crowned Zinc Production Company of the Year for the third year running.

We also continue to enjoy the trust of our partners, who grant Zinc unparalleled levels of access including to institutions such as the US Navy, with whom we have worked for many years in the production of Top Guns: The Next Generation. The programme premieres on National Geographic on 21^st September and will be streamed on Disney+ and Hulu.

Another creative highlight for the period was Brook Lapping's Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October for BBC, which critics described as "the latest powerhouse documentary from Norma Percy" and "vital viewing". We secured a repeat order for Tiny Islands (for Channel 4), a sixth series of Special Ops: Crime Squad (Dave), and a 26^th series of hit Channel 5 show Police Interceptors. 

We look forward to seeing The Inner Circle and Top Guns: The Next Generation as well as Martin Compston Living Las Vegas (Channel 4) and Rob and Rylan's Passage to India (BBC Two) on screens in the coming weeks.

A list of Zinc television programmes which are available to watch is on the Group's website: https://zincmedia.com/what-to-watch-on-tv/.

Significant strategic progress supports medium-term targets of £50m revenue and £5m EBITDA

Zinc's strategy remains to focus on organic and acquisitive growth, anchored on the three growth areas of Entertainment television production, Middle East business expansion and IP (intellectual property) and format led revenues.

Building on the success of these verticals in H1 we have confidence in future growth in Entertainment coming from the Group's new label Electric Violet (launched H2 2024).  This already has an extensive pipeline of opportunity exceeding £11m and has secured funding to develop a new format for the BBC with a future production value in the region of £2m.

The Middle East continues to represent an exciting source of opportunities for the Group, both in our TV and Content Production divisions. In 2025 full-year revenues of £8m are expected, and the Group recognised revenues of £4.4m in H1. There are projects worth over £10m on the pipeline. We have invested heavily in the region in recent years, building on the long-term presence there of The Edge, and the Group is targeting to double revenues from £5m in FY2024 to £10m by FY2028.

Our IP catalogue now exceeds 4,500 hours and continues to expand. Investments in H1 have strengthened Zinc's IP database and funded a strategic assessment of the Group's routes to market, the results of which will be announced in the coming weeks. The Group is targeting an additional £1.5m of high-margin IP revenue by 2028.

Momentum across all three growth areas, alongside strength in the core Group businesses, provides confidence in Zinc's ability to meet its mid-term targets.

Notable new business wins

Since July, the Group's new business activity has included a film commissioned specifically for Channel 4's YouTube channel and funded R&D exploring AI-powered production workflows for S4C. These projects reflect key industry shifts in audience viewing habits, with YouTube now attracting for more viewers than ITV, and rapid advances in production technology. We expect many more similar projects to follow.

A fast-turnaround on The Day Diana Died was completed by Atomic and new Raw Cut show Street Cops: Catching The Yobs performed well on its debut, both of which are for Channel 5. Earlier in the year Brook Lapping's Live Aid at 40: When Rock and Roll Took on the World, featuring interviews with Bob Geldof, Bono, Sting, and African and western leaders of the time, was broadcast on BBC Two, and entertained over 2 million viewers.

The Group has started production on a multi-million-pound cultural documentary for a major multinational in Saudi Arabia, has been commissioned by Channel 5 to explore Major Crimes, and received the green light for further series of the long-running Beechgrove Garden for the BBC for 2026.

Our H1 performance reflects the success and impact of our long-term growth plan, and we are consistently growing the profitability of the group.  We are winning more large-scale contracts and commissions and investing organically in our three new strategic growth pillars.  This increases our confidence in our medium-term targets of £50m revenue and £5m EBITDA.

Mark Browning

Chief Executive Officer

CFO'S REPORT

(1)   Restated for discontinued items. The numbers reported are based on continuing operations, which follows the restructuring of the Group in FY24.  All prior year comparisons have been adjusted to make comparisons on a like for like basis. This may mean numbers vary to prior trading updates.

(2)   Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA before Adjusting Items comprising share-based payment charges, gains on disposal of fixed assets, reorganisation and restructuring costs, acquisition costs and contingent consideration

(3)   Adjusted PBT is defined as PBT before adjusting items and acquisition-related costs (amortisation and interest on unwinding of intangible assets related to acquisitions).

INCOME STATEMENT

Group revenues from continuing operations in the reporting period were up 72% year-on-year at £22.9m (H1 2024: £13.3m). TV revenues increased 113% to £17.6m (H1 2024: £8.3m), driven by the acquisition of Raw Cut in H2 2024 and significant production activity in H1 on six multi-million pound commissions, including The Inner Circle, Top Guns: The Next Generation, Live Aid at 40: When Rock 'n' Roll Took on the World, Bargain Loving Brits and Supercharged. Supercharged was the tenth seven-figure project won by the group in as many months.   

Content Production encompasses brand and corporate film production by The Edge, and revenue from continuing operations increased by 6% to £5.3m (H1 2024: £5.0m) and is expected to increase significantly in H2, driven by the delivery of a multi-million-pound cultural documentary for a major multinational in Saudi Arabia.

Gross margins for the period were 37% (H1 2024: 42%). The year-on-year reduction reflects a strategic decision to expand into new areas, which is expected to compress margins in the short term but underpins the Group's medium-term objective of delivering £50m in revenue and £5m in EBITDA by FY28.

A comparable strategic initiative was implemented in FY22, when the Group increased the volume of lower-margin television revenue to facilitate entry into new television markets. As these programmes were recommissioned in FY23 and FY24, the Group was able to improve margins through production efficiencies and economies of scale.

In FY25, a similar strategy is being pursued to support further market expansion, including investment in entertainment programming and formats through the newly launched Electric Violet label, a prime-time quiz show currently in production, and large-scale event productions. Although these initiatives have resulted in lower gross margins in FY25, margins are expected to improve in future periods as high-margin IP revenues are generated from international programme and format sales, and as primary production margins increase on recommissioned content.

Operating costs have increased year-on-year by 25% to £8.8m (H1 2024: £7.0m), driven by Raw Cut being part of the Group in H1 2025, an increase in staff costs relating to the delivery of the additional 72% of revenue and investment in growth pillars such as the new Entertainment label, Electric Violet, that was launched in H2 2024.

In H1, the Group reorganised its television production labels into one television business and implemented a restructure within The Edge with several roles being absorbed into the Group's existing central platform. This has delivered annualised savings of £0.3m in addition to those already announced, which will be fully realised in FY26.     

The statutory loss before tax from continuing operations decreased by £1.3m to £0.6m (H1 2024: £1.9m) and the statutory loss after tax from continuing operations decreased by £1.4m to £0.5m (H1 2024: £1.9m). The loss is largely driven by £0.4m of acquisition related costs comprising the amortisation of intangible assets that have been acquired and the unwinding of contingent consideration, plus £0.4m of adjusting items that relate to the staff restructuring within The Edge, the share based payment charge and unrealised foreign exchange losses. Excluding acquisition-related costs and adjusting items the adjusted Profit Before Tax has improved by £1.5m to a £0.2m profit.

Earnings per share

Basic and diluted loss per share from continuing operations in the period was 2.16p (H1 2024: 8.80p).

Dividend

No dividend is proposed. The Board considers the Group's investment plans, financial position and business performance in determining when to pay a dividend.

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION

Assets

Cash at the end of June 2025 was £4.2m (June 2024: £4.1m and December 2024: £6.3m), having decreased by £2.1m during the period.

The Group used cash of £0.9m in its operations in the period (H1 2024: cash used of £0.3m), mainly driven by an increase in working capital due to the unwinding of advance payments from customers on large productions that started in Q4 2024. Cash further reduced by £0.8m due to payments made in relation to previous acquisitions, with £0.6m for completion and holdback amounts relating to the acquisition of Raw Cut and £0.2m in relation to The Edge's earn out.

As at 8 September the Group's cash position was £2.9m.

Equity and Liabilities

The £0.3m decrease in equity and liabilities is largely driven by the loss for the period of £0.5m, partially offset by a decrease in liabilities of £0.2m to £19.6m (31 December 2024: £19.8m).

The Group had an outstanding balance on long-term debt of £3.5m as at 30 June 2025 which has remained unchanged (30 June 2024: £3.5m). The Directors believe the Group has strong shareholder support. The long-term debt holders are also major shareholders who own 39% of the Group's shares, and the debt has no financial covenants. 

Will Sawyer

Chief Financial Officer

* The prior period figures have been restated to account for the discontinued operations of Zinc Communicate.