16 April 2026

Zinc Media Group plc

("Zinc" or the "Group")

Results for the year ended 31 December 2025

and

Notice of Annual General Meeting

Zinc Media Group plc (AIM: ZIN), the award-winning television and content production group, is pleased to announce its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2025 ("FY25").

The Group is pleased to report its results for the year ended 31 December 2025 (FY25) which represent the fifth consecutive year of growth in Adjusted EBITDA, Operating Profit and PBT.

Mark Browning, CEO of Zinc Media Group, said:

"2025 was another high-water mark for Zinc, with revenue growing 28% to £41.5m and adjusted EBITDA increasing 27% to £1.9m, marking our fifth consecutive year of growth in EBITDA, operating profit and PBT. 

This performance reflects continued delivery against our strategic priorities, with strong growth across our IP portfolio, expansion into entertainment and increasing scale in international markets, including 70% growth in the Middle East. 

We enter 2026 with good momentum, with £30m of revenue already secured or highly advanced and a further £28m in pipeline, providing strong visibility for the year ahead. 

With a strengthened platform, a growing base of owned IP and a clear strategy for organic and acquisitive growth, we are confident in delivering further progress."

2025 Financial Highlights

(1)   Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA before Adjusting Items (see note 8) comprising share-based payment charges, gains on disposal of fixed assets, reorganisation and restructuring costs, acquisition costs and contingent consideration

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

•     Adjusted EBITDA increased 27% to £1.9m (FY24 £1.5m); with Adjusted Operating Profit up 14% to £0.8m (FY24: £0.7m).

•     Revenue increased by 28% to £41.5m (FY24: £32.3m), reflecting the strong performance across the Group portfolio:

o  Organic revenue (excluding revenues relating to Raw Cut), grew 16% to £36.8m (FY24: £31.7m).

o  The Group's loyal customer base meant revenue quality remained very high with 88% of revenue coming from existing customers.

o  The Group delivered £3m from the AI sector, which included an AI industry trade event, an AI-powered TV commercial, and an AI-generated training film, and will launch a technology innovation initiative in 2026 to drive new business from digital, AI and emerging production technology.

•     FY25 strategic growth pillars all grew:

o  High margin IP revenues generated from programmes and format sales grew 53% to £2.7m (FY24: £1.8m).

o  The Group delivered £3.2m of revenues in TV Entertainment (FY24: nil).

o  Middle East revenue grew 70% to £8.5m (FY24: £5m). Total international revenues from clients outside the UK grew to £18.5m, an increase of 20% on prior year.

•     Gross margins were held at a market-leading level of 40.5% (FY24: 44.5%) reflecting the lower production margin on entertainment commissions but not yet reflecting the potential for associated high margin IP income in future years. The prior year also includes a high margin one-off contract.

•     The Group retained a robust balance sheet with cash of £3.5m at 31 December 2025 (FY24: £6.3m). The prior year's balance was higher due to timing of cash advances and cash received from acquisitions and disposals. Cash as at 1 April 2026 was £2.5m.

•     Excluding acquisition-related costs and other adjusting items, the Adjusted Profit Before Tax has improved by £0.1m to a £0.4m profit. The statutory loss before tax increased by £1.2m to £2.6m (FY24: £1.4m) with acquisition adjustments of £1.5m and £0.2m of acquisition costs offsetting the increase in EBITDA.

2025 Strategic and Operational Highlights

•     The Group continued to deliver successfully against its strategic and organisational objectives including: 

o  Centralising all its television labels into one streamlined structure.

o  The launch of Zinc Distribution in October 2025, to drive long term high-margin revenue from global programme and format sales.

o  A successful transition to a new management team in The Edge following the end of the earn-out period in June 2025, and with the Edge out-performing acquisition expectations.

o  Achieving £0.7m annualised savings, exceeding the target of £0.5m set at the start of the year.

o  The group established a permanent in-country presence in Saudi Arabia, and launched a new company in Media City Qatar, to expand the Group's product offering into TV and Live Events, building on 20 years of business experience in the region.

FY26 Trading and Outlook

•     The Group is trading well with a total of £30m of revenue booked or highly advanced for recognition in FY26. The prior year comparative of £34m reflected a particularly strong Q1 in FY25.

•     The Group's pipeline is well-developed with a further £28m of revenue in discussions, more than double the remaining market consensus revenue for the year ahead.

•     Post the year-end, the Group has had a number of new business wins which include the recommission of the BBC One quiz show The Celebrity Inner Circle with Amanda Holden, where Zinc owns the programme and format rights.

•     The Group is targeting a further £1m of annualised savings in FY26, with a full year impact in FY27. 

•     The Group's strategic pillars present upside opportunity over the medium term alongside new acquisitive opportunities supported by a highly advanced pipeline of opportunities.

These factors provide the Board with confidence in delivering FY26 market expectations.

The FY25 results are summarised in a short film and presentation on the Zinc website here: zincmedia.com/investor-information/Full-Year-Results-2025/

Copies of the annual report and accounts

The annual report and accounts is available on the company's website at www.zincmedia.com and a hard copy will be posted to those shareholders registered to receive one. 

Notice of annual general meeting

Accompanying the annual report and accounts is notice of the Group's 2026 annual general meeting (the "AGM"), which will take place at 10.00am on 1 June 2026 at Singer Capital Markets' offices at 1 Bartholomew Lane, London, EC2N 2AX.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of the UK Market Abuse Regulation. The Directors of the Company take responsibility for this announcement.

For further information, please contact:

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, Tomas 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 Picture Company, one of the UK's largest brand film-making companies, and Zinc Audio, specialising in podcasts and radio production.

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

Chairman's Statement

The Group has delivered its strongest set of financial results, driven by award-winning television and branded content in the face of many macro headwinds. The business significantly outperformed its peer group, and the wider market, reporting record revenue and profit levels.

The three strategic priorities announced in 2025 delivered strong organic growth which has powered the Group to record levels of revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted PBT.  These growth pillars have been strengthened further for FY26 underpinning our confidence they will drive enhanced organic growth. The acquisition of Raw Cut, late in 2024, proved to be a highly profitable acquisition delivering significantly ahead of acquisition expectations in its first full year in the Group.  This follows the highly successful acquisition of The Edge in 2022, demonstrating the Group's ability to source and integrate accretive acquisitions into the Group platform.

The Group's ambition is to be a content creation company with turnover in excess of £100m+ generating owned IP, powered by a Group platform. The content creation economy is booming, and Zinc is evolving its products and production expertise to serve these markets as they develop, focusing on investment in organic growth and further strategic acquisitions.

The Group's content proposition is built on trust and quality, which applies equally to production for brands, businesses, television channels, or streamers.  We are trusted with exclusive access in the world for programmes including the recently released Superpowers: China vs America for the BBC, or access to UK police forces for our long running series Police Interceptors for Channel 5. We are trusted to deliver global premium factual series such as our $9m production Top Guns - The Next Generation for National Geographic, or high-quality events such as Supercharged for G42. Our quality kitemark is famous globally, as recognised through numerous awards including a BAFTA in 2025, winning Production Company of the Year at the New York Festival Film and Television Awards for the third year running, and EVCOM Agency of The Year for the first time ever, for The Edge.

The start of the new financial year has been strong, with the recommission of the primetime quiz show, The Celebrity Inner Circle, hosted by Amanda Holden, a returning series for National Geographic with Cars that Changed History, and the release of our music biopic Wham! in China.  Forward bookings for the current year are solid despite global conflict and economic uncertainty, and our pipeline remains healthy. This is our fifth year of EBITDA profit growth which continues to drive Adjusted PBT, supported by ongoing efficiency savings as the group streamlines its portfolio of companies. The Group continues to balance long term profit growth with further organic investment in new markets, and we have a highly developed pipeline of acquisition prospects.

The Board would like to thank the exceptional Management team, employees and freelancers for their professional and dedicated work, as well as our shareholders for their support in what has been a year of record achievement for the Group.

Christopher Satterthwaite CBE

Chairman, Zinc Media Group plc

15 April 2026

CEO's Review

2025 was another high-water mark for Zinc Media Group.  We grew our turnover 28% to over £41m and grew Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted PBT for the fifth consecutive year. We delivered growth from the three strategic pillars announced in April 2025 while continuing to diversify our product base and geographical footprint. We also further streamlined the Group delivering our annualised savings plan.

The Group now comprises 12 businesses. In 2025 we operated across two production areas: television production (Tern, Brook Lapping, Red Sauce, Raw Cut, Supercollider, Rex, Tomos TV, Atomic Television, Electric Violet) and content production for brands and businesses which is housed within The Edge label. In October 2025 we launched Zinc Distribution which expands our capability in selling Zinc-owned programme IP and format sales worldwide.  All businesses are supported by Bumblebee post-production and by the Group platform of centralised services.

Increasing levels of Adjusted Operating Profit

The Group delivered £0.8m of Adjusted Operating Profit (FY24: £0.7m) and the highest Adjusted PBT in over a decade, along with £1.9m of Adjusted EBITDA in the reporting period. To put this in context, in 2020, at the start of the Group's turnaround plan under current management, the Group reported an Adjusted Operating Loss of £2.1m and an Adjusted EBITDA loss of £0.8m.

Organic and acquisitive revenue growth

Total organic revenue (excluding Raw Cut which was acquired in October 2024) grew 16% to £36.8m (FY24 £31.7m).  This was driven by organic growth of 23% in television to £24.2m. and content for brands and businesses through The Edge, which grew 5% year on year, delivering £12.6m turnover. 

During the first 3 years of Zinc's ownership The Edge's average revenues increased by 33% versus the period pre-ownership during which its 3-year trailing average revenue was under £9m p.a.

FY25 marked the first full year of Raw Cut Television in the Group, which has production bases in London and Cardiff. Revenue and profit significantly outperformed acquisition expectations, delivering £4.7m turnover.  The Group has a strong track record in acquisitions with both Edge and Raw Cut outperforming expectations.

UK broadcasters remain obliged by Ofcom to deliver a minimum number of programme hours made within the four UK nations. The addition of Raw Cut makes Zinc one of a small handful of producers with substantive production bases in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Acquisitions and investments will positively build the Group's IP and earnings over time, but  have short term financial impacts, both on cash and P&L. Acquisition liabilities have increased in FY25 due to Raw Cut outperforming expectations, and  cash has reduced to £3.5m (FY24 £6.3m) as a result of acquisition-related payments, investments and working capital movements. This is covered in the CFO report in more detail.

Revenue quality and international diversification

The Group maintained its reputation for outstanding delivery quality during the reporting period, with 88% of revenue being delivered from customers who also commissioned from the Group in FY24.

The Group improved its geographical diversity, reducing its dependence on the UK market, with revenue from outside the UK increasing by 20% to £18.5m. Total international revenue accounted for 45% of turnover in the reporting period.

Strategic pillars delivered excellent growth

The Group's 3 priority growth pillars delivered organic revenue growth in the reporting period.

·      IP exploitation:  Intellectual Property (IP) revenues grew 53% to £2.7m in the reporting period (FY24: £1.8m), driven by Raw Cut.  IP revenues deliver 90% gross margin. 

Zinc owns 4,100 hours of content across a broad spectrum of genres. The new Zinc Distribution label  launched new YouTube channels and licensed its IP for the creation of FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming Television) channels. This revenue is delivered at 100% margin. The Group expects digital revenues to grow  substantially  in the period ahead as it invests in digitisation of back catalgue and in new business opportunities

•     Entertainment: Expansion into entertainment genres grew revenue £3.2m (FY24: nil).

Notable new business wins in the year included the Group's first entertainment quiz commission The Inner Circle and The Celebrity Inner Circle with Amanda Holden. The show performed well, and post period end has been recommissioned for 2026. Race Against The Tide was another new factual entertainment commission which is due to air in 2026 and has the potential to return in 2027. 

•     Middle East expansion: Middle East revenues grew 70% to £8.5m.

Notable new business wins in the year included a multi-million pound documentary for a global brand in Saudi Arabia, a TV Commercial featuring David Beckham and Mo Farah for Qatar, and the Group's first multi-million pound large scale event production, SuperCharged, in Abu Dhabi, partnering with G42.

The Group is investing in its long-established businesses in Qatar and Saudi Arabia establishing a permanent in country presence in KSA to support the next phase of growth. In parallel, the Group launched a new company in partnership with Media City Qatar, strengthening its regional footprint and enabling access to funding for large-scale productions in-country. This mirrors the support provided by Screen Scotland and Screen Northern Ireland to Nations indies in the UK. This expansion also marks an evolution of the Group's offering in the region, broadening from brand and TV Commercial production into TV programmes and live events, and builds on more than 20 years of activity in Qatar.

The Group has targeted £10m growth from these strategic pillars from their FY25 base, by the end of 2029, which would translate into £4m incremental EBITDA margin at the Group's current average margins.

Zinc platform: driving revenue, margins, AI innovation and operating leverage

The Group has invested in a common platform to support every business in the portfolio. This platform of central services provides specialist management expertise which would otherwise be unaffordable within any one label, in areas including technology, marketing and PR, human resources, finance, commercial strategy, distribution and post-production.  The platform allows centralisation of common functions and infrastructure which helps maintain gross margins, while enabling efficient resource sharing, reducing duplication. It provides operational leverage as new companies join the Group and differentiates Zinc as a compelling offer to acquisition targets. Platform highlights include:

·      Strategic investment in Bumblebee Post-Production and state-of-the-art filming equipment to support all production labels and enhance margin performance, which helped deliver £450k of additional margin in the delivery of the Top Guns project for Disney+/National Geographic. This investment has resulted in a comprehensive and high-quality inventory, alongside a growing reputation as a trusted equipment provider which now presents external revenue generating opportunities.

·      The Group's investment in AI has enhanced operational productivity and created new commercial opportunities primarily in two areas. Firstly, productivity enhancement, where we have deployed AI-enabled tools to accelerate workflows, particularly within post-production, including transcription and editing. Secondly, generative AI, where we are developing new content capabilities across both audio and visual formats. Innovation is actively encouraged within a defined governance framework to ensure the protection of intellectual property and adherence to copyright standards.

·      The Group's marketing and PR functions support all labels but also serve as revenue-generating functions within the platform. By delivering integrated marketing and publicity programmes for clients' projects, the Group is extending its value proposition beyond production. This development enhances margins, strengthens client relationships, and reinforces the platform's role in driving operating leverage as the business scales.

Production highlights

2025 was another excellent year of programme and editorial highlights. The Group delivered 243 hours of television production across 17 programme strands (178 hours in 2024), alongside hundreds of hours of content for brands and businesses.

Returning series are the backbone of a successful television company as they underpin long term growth and investment. 13 series were commissioned in 2025 including 5 recommissions and 8 new series:

o  the 3rd series of travelogues with Rob Rinder and Rylan Clark: A Greek Odyssey.

o  the 5th series of Sunday Morning Live for the BBC.

o  the 25^th series of Police Interceptors, for Channel 5.

o  the latest contemporary history documentary from Brook Lapping: Superpowers: America vs China, for the BBC.

o  Planes That Changed History: A ten-episode acquisition to National Geographic (Zinc owns the IP), which has since been recommissioned as 'Cars that Changed History'.

o  Street Cops Catching the Yobs: a Channel 5 series which has been recommissioned for 2026.

o  The Infinite Explorer with Hannah Fry: Zinc also owns the IP for this successful co-produced series between Zinc, National Geographic and Bloomberg.

o  Live Aid at 40 was series for the BBC and CNN to mark the 40th Anniversary of the original BAND AID concert

o  Top Guns: The Next Generation was the Group's largest ever USA television series worth $9m for National Geographic Channel. It is available on Disney+ outside the UK.

Alongside the commercially valuable returning series were reputational feature documentaries and singles. While these do not span numerous years they build considerable industry reputation, which often sees the commissioning channel return year after year for further commissions.  In FY25 these included Brexit for the BBC which included contributions from David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, and Gordon Brown, and Nick Cave's Veiled World for Sky.

There are currently 55 television programmes produced by Zinc companies available to view in the UK, either on terrestrial channels, on-demand or via subscription TV platforms. A full list of Zinc produced programmes currently available to watch is on the Group's new website: https://zincmedia.com/what-to-watch-on-tv/

Along with recommissions and ratings, awards are one of the tangible ways the group measures its promise of trust and quality programme making for channels and clients.  The Edge was awarded EVCOM Agency of the Year for the first time in its history, Rob & Rylan Series 1 was awarded a BAFTA TV Award for Factual Entertainment and SuperCollider won its first awards at EVCOM, winning 2 golds, including Best Brand Communication Event and Best Innovation & Technology.  Along with winning Production Company of the Year, the Group won over 25 awards in FY25, underlining its claim as one of the worlds most prestigious production groups.

FY26 Outlook, market and strategic initiatives

As at 1 April 2026 revenue secured and highly advanced for recognition in FY26 totals £30m. The prior year comparative of £34m reflected a particularly strong Q1 in FY25, which included high value one-off productions such as Top Guns, Wham! in China and Live Aid at 40.

The Group's pipeline remains strong with a further £28m of revenue in earlier discussions, which is more than double the remaining market consensus revenue for the year ahead. We also note stronger pipeline conversion in FY26 vs the same time last year, with secured and highly advanced increasing by 50% since February.

The Group has secured a number of significant high value commissions for FY26 which also span into FY27, which include:

o  The recommission of Police Interceptors, now series 26.

o  The second season recommission of The Celebrity Inner Circle with Amanda Holden for BBC One.

o  A second series for National Geographic called, Cars that Changed History.

o  A major multi-million pound commission in Qatar.

There is also high confidence in 5 further television commissions over £1m and two more multi-million pound Middle East productions to be delivered in FY26.

While the current Iran conflict presents near-term uncertainty to H1, the Group has seen continued resilience in client activity across its businesses in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, with commercial discussions progressing, some large commissions contracting and others at a highly advanced stage in the pipeline.

Strategic Growth Pillars

As the content market continues to evolve at pace, the Group is positioning itself as a premium content creation company.  It will pursue screen-based content production, invest in digital and the new creator economy, embrace AI production opportunities and build IP, while continuing to maintain its core product proposition in television and brand film production. 

The three strategic growth pillars which helped drive FY25 performance will evolve in FY26 as follows:

·      IP creation and monetisation: this will continue to include the sale of traditional programme and format rights through Zinc Distribution while expanding to include digital distribution through YouTube channels, short form production, podcasts, events and third-party content partnerships.  The Group assumes base case growth of a further £1.5m over the next 3 years.

·      Geographical expansion:  this will continue to include genre expansion in the Middle East into television production and event production but will also include targeted expansion in to both the US and Europe through incremental organic investments with the potential of acquisitions to accelerate diversification into these markets. The base plan assumes Middle East revenues grow by a further £5m over the next 3 years.

·      Genre (Product) diversification: the Group will continue its focus on diversification into entertainment, while accelerating investment in to event production, and AI. The base case assumes entertainment will grow by a further £3.5m over the next 3 years. Zinc's entertainment pipeline currently has £18m of potential at early-stage discussion.

Following encouraging organic growth during FY25 in these strategic growth pillars the Group now believes there is an emerging upside opportunity which could see accelerated growth for the Group:

·      IP:  By investing in digitising Zinc's entire back catalogue of IP, investing in the creation of a digital first label focused on short form content creation and the creator economy, and with investment in direct-to-consumer content channels on YouTube and FAST channels, the Group  believes there is a further £1m of upside opportunity from IP exploitation.

·      Geographical expansion: The pipeline of opportunities in the Middle East is encouraging and supports an upside opportunity of an additional £12m over the next 3 years.  Incremental organic investment in the US market would create potential additional upside, and the Group will explore this in the year ahead.

·      Genre (Product) diversification:  Event production presents one of the best upside opportunities within the Group's current portfolio of businesses.  Incremental investment in additional resource and expertise could open a further £5m of event production revenue in the UK and internationally. Conversations are underway about a large event for FY27 which aims to go into production in H2 FY26.

The combined upside opportunity created from investing in and expanding the 3 strategic growth pillars could drive the Group turnover to between £65m-£70m, assuming current baseline growth remains as forecast. 

UK television market

In UK television, the UK PSB network groups (comprising the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) represent the largest addressable market, with Zinc producing for all of them. 

The total TV commissioning market for UK producers is worth approximately £4bn[1] and UK Public Service Broadcasters (PSB's) account for approximately half of this. Factual television spend (specialist factual, general factual and factual entertainment), which is Zinc's core competence, presents an addressable market of c.£850m.

AI and emerging technologies

Zinc is adopting AI across its operations, delivering benefits throughout the Group's workflow. In creative development, AI is used to analyse market trends and create compelling pitch materials more efficiently. During production, AI enables the creation of dynamic graphics and complex sequences that would previously have been cost-prohibitive. In post-production, AI enhances archive and audio, as well as supporting voiceover where rights and permissions are secured. Large volumes of production footage can now be rapidly transcribed within a secure, closed LLM environment, enabling more effective data interrogation, theme identification and shot selection. Collectively, these capabilities reduce time and cost and support margin resilience.

In addition to operational efficiencies, AI is generating new commercial opportunities in both production and events. In 2025 Zinc secured business worth £3m from the AI sector, which included an AI industry trade event, an AI-powered TV commercial, and an AI-generated training film.  This underpins the Group's view that the AI sector presents a greater opportunity for Zinc than a threat.

One Zinc - creating efficiency savings

In FY25 all TV businesses combined under one management and one P&L. Following the end of The Edge earn out, the Group will now operate all its business under the 'One Zinc' model from FY26.  It will streamline financial reporting into one single group P&L and operate under a streamlined senior management team. Some changes have been enacted in Q1 2026, but further efficiencies will be released during the year as part of the Group's £1m annualised savings target which will have a full year impact in FY27.

Zinc has delivered steady profit growth over the last five years.  It has a clear strategic plan for continued organic growth and a highly developed pipeline of potentially accretive acquisitions.  The company is ambitious about the content creation opportunities across all genres and territories that lie ahead.

Mark Browning

Chief Executive Officer, Zinc Media Group plc

CFO's Report

(1)   The numbers reported in this annual report are based on continuing operations.  

(2)   Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA before Adjusting Items (see note 8) comprising share-based payment charges, gains on disposal of fixed assets, reorganisation and restructuring costs, acquisition costs and contingent consideration

(3)   Adjusted Operating Profit is defined as Operating Profit before Adjusting Items and amortisation of acquisitions. 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

Revenue

The Group defines itself an international screen-based content production business. It has intentionally diversified its revenue streams during recent years to mitigate the inherent risk associated with winning business in one sole territory or individual business line.  In FY25, 45% of revenues have come from outside the UK up by 20% year on year (FY24: 48%), a number which we expect to grow in future years.

Total revenue increased by 28% to £41.5m (FY24: £32.3m). The Group has continued to grow organically and successfully diversify its revenue, with 16% year on year organic revenue growth and the Edge continuing to outperform expectations.  The Group has also benefited from a full year of Raw Cut TV and Distribution.

The Group's full year result was in part due to a very strong start to FY25, with a particularly high level of contracted business during Q1 off the back of a busy end to FY24.

The value of individual commissions increased, with 7 productions during 2025 (whether TV or branded content) being greater than £1m.  The momentum enabled us to report an exceptionally high level of revenue booked at H1 FY25.  H2 is normally the Group's strongest reporting period and FY26 is expected to return to this revenue profile.

Content Production encompasses brand and corporate film production.   Revenue of £12.6m was up 5% year-on-year (FY24: £12.1m). This represents another good year for The Edge and has demonstrated that it is able to sustain and grow that level of revenue each year; the track record of revenue growth provides confidence that it can sustain these levels and can continue to perform well even through the latest Middle East conflict.

Gross margin and operating expenses

Group gross margins have been successfully sustained in FY25 at 40.5% (FY24: 44.5%), an impressive performance in a market where margins remain under pressure. In the prior year, the margin was impacted by a one-off high margin project in Content Production where £1.2m of revenue was recognised relating to services the Group was paid for but was partially frustrated from performing by the customer. Once this impact is stripped out the like for like margin for FY24 is 42.4%.

The Group continues its strategy for growth by investing in new labels and expanding into new genres, as well as focussing on production cost control to sustain and grow its existing margin. A good example of this is The Celebrity Inner Circle quiz, a returnable primetime quiz show, where Zinc owns the IP, meaning revenues can be earned beyond the production period. The expansion of Zinc's distribution business via the acquisition of Raw Cut in October FY24 is also aimed at ensuring maximum value remains within the Group. Raw Cut has outperformed expectations since acquisition, testament to a strong pipeline and customer focus.  The Group integrates all acquisitions as early as possible in their lifecycle, thus maximising synergies and benefiting from the investment the group has made in its operating platform. The Group's previous acquisition, the Edge, is now fully integrated and has continued to perform beyond initial expectations.

Investing in acquisitions, new markets and new genres creates a lag in EBITDA performance.  In-year investment in FY25 into long term new revenue growth was £0.3m.

Adjusting items incurred during the year amounted to £2.5m (FY24: £1.1m), which mainly comprised costs relating to acquisitions which were £0.2m (FY24: £0.8m), in addition to a £1.5m increase (FY24: £0.1m decrease) in the fair value of contingent consideration in relation to acquisitions, principally due to Raw Cut's strong performance, and restructuring and other costs of £0.7m (FY24: £0.3m).

Operating expenses excluding fair value adjustments have risen by £2.1m to £17.4m (FY24: £15.3m).  This is largely reflective of the full year impact on staff, development, property and administrative costs from the acquisition of Raw Cut of £1.3m, and also includes  additional marketing and events spend, and television development investment arising from new projects (such as The Inner Circle or Top Guns), including related travel of £0.4m, plus additional lease costs of £0.2m.

Adjusted EBITDA increased 27% to £1.9m (FY24: £1.5m) and Adjusted Operating Profit increased to £0.8m (FY23: £0.7m), in line with market expectations and the highest in recent history.

Finance costs are flat year on year at £0.5m.  There is a consistent level of £0.3m pa of interest payable on the Group's long-term debt (FY24: £0.3m).

The statutory loss before tax increased by £1.2m to £2.6m (FY24: £1.4m). This is largely driven by £1.5m of fair value adjustments related to contingent consideration, acquisition related costs, and £0.2m acquisition costs, offset by lower interest and share based charges. Excluding acquisition-related costs and adjusting items the Adjusted Profit Before Tax has improved by £0.1m to a £0.4m profit.

The below provides a reconciliation of Adjusted to Statutory reporting:

(1)   Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA before Adjusting Items (see note 8) comprising share-based payment charges, gains on disposal of fixed assets, reorganisation and restructuring costs, acquisition costs and contingent consideration

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

Earnings per share

Basic and diluted loss per share in FY25 was 10.36p (FY24: loss per share of 2.44p). These measures were calculated on the losses for the period attributable to Zinc Media Group shareholders of £2.6m (FY24: loss of £0.6m) divided by the weighted average number of shares in issue during the period being 24,687,311 (FY24: 23,021,816).

Dividend

The Board has not recommended a dividend in respect of the year ended 31 December 2025 (FY24: £nil).

Statement of Financial Position

Assets

Cash (£m)

The cash balance at the end of December 2025 was £3.5m, which is a decrease of £2.8m during the year, nonetheless the Group's cash position remains in good health. The decrease is partly due to higher cash advances received  at the end of FY24, due to much of our FY25 trading happening in early H1.  The Group also received £1.2m from disposals and acquisitions during FY24 which increased the level of cash at the end of FY24 and subsequently made acquisition related payments during FY25. We have continued to focus on working capital management and efficient use of our resources during the year to manage the natural variability of production cashflows.

Trade and other receivables have remained stable at £6.4m (FY24: £6.2m), with a continued strong track record of collecting debt quickly. This is an area of focus as our client and revenue base continues to grow and evolve.

Equity and Liabilities

Total equity has reduced from £3.5m to £1.2m principally due to changes in fair value of the contingent consideration of Raw Cut, which has continued to perform strongly since acquisition.

Total liabilities decreased from £19.8m to £18.8m due in part to unwinding of deferred consideration as well as to movements in working capital and contract liabilities relating to timing of payments. The Group had an outstanding balance on long-term debt of £3.5m at year-end (FY24: £3.5m). The debt maturity date was extended in March 2025, through to 31 December 2027. The long-term debt holders are also major shareholders who own 37.9% of the Group's shares. 

Cashflows

The Group's cashflow from operations reduced by £0.5m in the year (FY24: increase of £1.2m), mainly driven by changes in working capital and reduced activity over the year-end versus the prior year, meaning lower advanced payments from customers. The net movement in the year was a decrease in cash of £2.7m (FY24: increase of £1.3m) after financing activity cash outflow and finance costs of £0.8m (FY24: outflow of £0.8m) with net cash outflows used in investing activities of £1.3m due to payment of consideration and production capex investments. In FY24 there was cash generated from investments of £1.2m due to the disposal of Zinc Communicate and the acquisition of Raw Cut.  The cashflow movement, taking out the impact of FY24 and FY25 investments and disposals, shows a net cash outflow of £0.4m, even before taking into account the effect of the high level of production cash advances received before year-end FY24.

The financing activity cash outflow and finance costs of £0.8m comprise lease payments of £0.5m mainly relating to the Group's offices (flat year on year) and £0.3m of debt interest payments, principally related to interest on long term debt.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

In monitoring the performance of the business, the Executive Management team uses the following KPIs:

·      Revenue growth, including revenue from repeat customers, number of returning television series, revenue by territory and new business pipeline strength

·      Profitability assessed by key measures including gross margins, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Operating Profit and Adjusted PBT

·      Cash generation and cash management

·      Performance and integration of acquisitions (for example profit performance, use of platform and synergies)

·      Industry recognition for producing quality content

These KPIs have been reported on within the Strategic Report within the Chairman, CEO and CFO's reports.

Laura McGaughey

Consolidated Income Statement for the year ended 31 December 2025

The loss for the year attributable to equity holders from continuing operations is £2,557,000 (2024: £561,000) and from discontinued operations is £nil (2024: £2,953,000).

The accompanying principal accounting policies and notes form part of these consolidated financial statements.

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income for the year ended 31 December 2025

Consolidated Statement of Financial Position as at
31 December 2025

The consolidated financial statements were authorised for issue and approved by the Board on 15 April 2026 and are signed on its behalf by Laura McGaughey

The above consolidated statement of financial position should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes.

Company registration number:  SC075133

Consolidated Statement of Cashflows for the year ended
31 December 2025