ZOO Digital launches mastering services division

REACH

14 October 2021

ZOO DIGITAL GROUP PLC

("ZOO", the "Group" or the "Company")

ZOO Digital launches mastering services division

ZOO Digital Group plc (AIM: ZOO), the leading provider of end-to-end cloud-based localisation and media services to the global entertainment industry, announces the launch of its mastering services division to support leading content creators to deliver for next day air on major streaming services and platforms.

The mastering services division provides an additional revenue source for the Company and further enhances ZOO's position as a provider of end-to-end localisation and media services to the global media and entertainment industry. Mastering is the process of finishing or finalising a programme after post-production to synchronise the video and audio tracks, conform to technical requirements of the target platforms, and perform compression and encoding of the audio-visual materials. ZOO will provide mastering for both UHD and HD content, including next day air servicing for content on major streaming platforms. The service will be led out of ZOO's Los Angeles facility, which benefits from the latest hardware and software for mastering, QC and packaging.

The new division will be led by ex-Fox Filmed Entertainment, Melissa McAllister, who has joined the Company as Director of TV Mastering and Servicing. With 18 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry, including as Supervisor of Scheduling and Servicing for Media Services at Fox Filmed Entertainment, McAllister specialises in managing projects to deliver the highest levels of quality, while adhering to some of the tightest turnaround times demanded in the entertainment industry. As Director of TV Mastering & Servicing, McAllister leads a highly experienced team of mastering project managers, encoders, editors and QC technicians, all working to deliver high-quality masters for the world's biggest content creators.

Stuart Green, CEO of ZOO Digital, said: 

"The launch of a dedicated mastering service is the natural progression in our end-to-end client offering and positions ZOO to benefit from a potentially significant future revenue stream. The biggest names in entertainment are dealing with more languages, more platforms, and more audiences, so having a vendor that can offer both multi-language localisation and media services means greater efficiency, fewer delays, and simplifies the challenge of taking a project from post-production to platform."

Melissa McAllister, Director of TV Mastering and Servicing, commented:

"The biggest factors in delivering mastering services in the entertainment industry are exactly the traits that ZOO has made its name for. By always looking ahead at how best to tackle industry challenges, this has enabled us to hit the ground running with the new service line. ZOO is a proven safe pair of hands for the biggest names in the industry and we already have the knowledge and experience within the team to deliver high-quality mastering projects."

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About ZOO Digital Group plc:

ZOO Digital supports major Hollywood studios and streaming services to globalise their content and reach audiences everywhere, by providing world-leading, technology-enabled localisation and media services.

Founded in 2001, ZOO Digital operates from hubs in Los Angeles, London and Dubai, with a development and production centre in Sheffield, UK. The company is targeting $100m sales in the medium term.

The Group provides media services through its platforms that include: ZOOsubs, ZOOdubs, ZOOstudio. Its full-service proposition delivers the end-to-end services required to prepare both original and catalogue content for digital distribution; these services include dubbing, subtitling & captioning, metadata creation & localisation, artwork localisation and media processing. Alongside this offering, ZOO also provides its customers with management platforms and strategic solutions to support their own internal globalisation operations.

ZOO is a go-to service partner for media businesses looking to globalise their content across different territories, languages and distribution platforms. Using its innovative technology-enabled approach, ZOO helps its customers to reduce time to market, lower costs and deliver high quality products to their global audiences. The business has frameworks in place with all major Hollywood studios and streaming services. Its customers include Disney, NBCUniversal, HBO and ViacomCBS.

ZOO's competitive advantage arises from three interlinking factors - the leading role it has played in the digital transformation of its sector; the world class proprietary platforms that it develops to enable this transformation; and the global supply chain of thousands of freelancers, working collaboratively in ZOO's platforms, which delivers services that scale easily to meet demand. These factors combine to make ZOO uniquely geared to capitalise on new market opportunities in a fast-paced and constantly evolving industry.