Bob Geldof’s video company Ten Alps saw pre-tax profit rise five percent to £3.3 million over the year to March 31 after moving farther in to B2B and public-sector online TV channels.
Ten Alps already produces sector-specific web video channels like Vets TV, Optometry TV, Teachers TV and local council channel Kent TV. Today it said it will launch six more this year, including Accountancy TV globally and Newton TV with Science Museum and Open University. And it confirmed it will bid for local TV news contracts – especially in Northern Ireland, the North West, the North East and the Midlands – if Tuesday’s Digital Britain report confirms they will be put out to tender in 2012.
More community sites like Fermanagh TV, launched last month, are planned even without those contracts.
But revenue fell 1.5 percent to £80.2 million and the company acknowledged lower margins due to “difficult economic environment, increased executive costs and lower KPIs from the new Teachers TV contract”.
Ten Alps, whose chair is broadcaster Brian Walden, last year bought online video ad producers Twenty First Century Media of Newcastle and Multimedia Arts of Manchester, and raised £3 million through a February share placing to accelerate its online development. The company also produces a range of TV programmes, but it’s the online business it intends to ramp up this year.