Blackbird (LSE:BIRD) — Interim results

0:01 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the BLACKBIRD PLC Interim Results Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab that's just situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions at any time and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, all questions submitted today will be reviewed where responses published on the Investor Meet company platform where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And as usual, if you could give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I'd now like to hand you over to CEO, Ian McDonough. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Jake. Thank you very much. And good morning, ladies and gentlemen, or good afternoon to anywhere you are calling in from.

0:49 So welcome to our 2022 interim results presentation. Steve and I will take you through the the slide deck, and Steven Streeter is available to answer questions should he be required to. And we will try and get to all questions, so don't feel shy about putting any in. Right. So just in case you aren't aware of what BLACKBIRD does, just a a quick review, quick recap. We are aimless to the business. We are a market capital, at least on the September 9, a market capital of approximately £74,000,000. We are a patented cloud native content creation and distribution tool. So that's that's editing and publishing, and we do that for the for the professional media and entertainment industry mainly now in The US. We have scalable and efficient technology and a growing IP portfolio.

1:43 So exciting company. We now have 15 patents and five more pending. And as you can see from those those nice logos below there, we're multi award winning, including in the sustainability area, which is obviously becoming much more important for every industry, but particularly for the for the media industry. So the board, I won't well, too long on this one, but the board is stable. Steven and I are quite significant shareholders, but all the board are shareholders, and that's really encouraging. Everyone everyone is participating in the success and future success of the company. So highlights for for this interim period. Well, it's a really exciting period for us. Our our revenues are up a record amount of 78% versus prior year to just under 1,600,000.

2:29 We 1,550,000, I should say. We have hired also in house expertise to accelerate growth opportunities. This is particularly in the greater economy space. I'll touch on that later in the presentation. And we've also we're reaching the end of our our first tech licensing build. This is this is our licensing deal that we did last September to a large partner in the production and media industry who is now rolling out their product, the the the combined product that is powered by Blackbird to an end user in The US. I'm gonna touch on that a little bit as we go through. Now for for people familiar with this with the company, you will have seen this slide a number of times before, probably since 2019 that we've put in this slide up. It just shows the consistency in terms of our direction.

3:16 We are looking at three different circles on this slide. On the far right far left of the picture, the infrastructure slide is really where we are focused on direct deals with with customers in the media sector, customers such as CVS, as the NHL, as A and E, etcetera. They are they are where they those customers sit. We've always said that we will scale the business though through the through the two larger yellow circles here on this page. OEM is where we become a part of another company's technology stack that can either be as a product or as a technology. As mentioned in the in in the previous slide, the the the largest of those is the tech licensing deal we did just last year. And on the far right of this slide, the public cloud bubble, public cloud really being a vector to reach a mass market.

4:06 That is now where the raise that we did just before before Christmas and the new team that's come on board subsequently are now really focused in terms of building a product that is addressing the creator economy that this there's a mass market in comparison to the products that we've got elsewhere in the market. So to recap the year so far, it's been a very busy year in terms of bringing in direct and OEM deals. We split this into Europe and The US, so both sides of the pond. On the European side, EVS, a key partner for us, has recently now integrated our product into two of its largest products. That is the media hub product that they have and the IP director, part of the media section platform that they have. In fact, that was just announced this last weekend where EVS are starting to to to demonstrate and show customers the Blackbird integration with IP Director. And EBS has a has a large installed base of IP Director, something in the region of 500 customers.

5:09 Also, in terms of direct deals, brought on FIFA in this in this this year. FIFA are using the product extensively in their new OTT platform, their FIFA plus platform, where we are a content creation tool and publishing tool, and they're using Blackbird to quite a sophisticated level in terms of edits, cuts, and publishing. Also, this year, we've also brought an SBS in Belgium and had an expansion within the IMG port the IMG account that we have. On The US side, our global financial news organization, which unfortunately, we can't tell you who it is. It's under NDA, but anyone mostly you guys who are who are investors will will have a good inkling like who that is, has also experienced expansion this year, and that customer is really very happy with us.

5:56 We've also had an expansion into into Televiso Univision, a brand new renewal into into A and E Networks for three years, and NCSA, which is a part of the IMG portfolio, has also taken on Blackbird in a multiyear contract. So plenty going on in the direct deals. Remember that? The direct and OEM deals are the the the first two. Now in terms of the powered by Blackbird model that we closed deal last September with this with this partner in the media sector, they're now currently rolling out that custom that that product to a major gold standard US broadcaster. This this really indicates an inflection point in the scale at which BLACKBIRD technology is reaching the media sector. So it's a really, really very exciting time for us.

6:43 You know, I I wish I could be here actually announcing what the name of our customer is, but it won't be very far away. We should be able to announce the name of the the partner and the customer probably within within within the the the 2022 calendar year. So let's watch this space, but the the the initial rollout has gone very well. The the the end customer in question really wants to make sure that the product is properly road tested and edge cases tested and making sure that it's a highly tuned product. So in terms of expanding our reach, the other key theme of this presentation is is to to talk about how our our technology is applicable to a wider market other than the professional m and e space. So you see on this this pyramid on the right hand side of the screen here, it gives you a kind of indicator of the size of the of the M and E space compared to the other sectors that we could we could enter.

7:38 Streaming media magazine, in fact, has talked about BLACKBIRD being at the top of the pyramid literally in terms of sophistication and the and the smooth and the performance of the product. So to move into other markets, it's it is partly a case of deprecating our product and to to to address those markets, but also a case of having us an end to end platform that meet us more glass to glass than than where we fit in currently as a as a component. So we can we can become frictionless. We can we can self-service, and we can leverage those technical technological advantages that most of you guys know about so well, I. The speed, scalability, and efficiency of the platform to address that market. So we did the raise just before Christmas, which was good timing, and we've since then hired three key leaders into the business.

8:28 We're gonna talk about them very, very quickly now from from left to right. Summit Wright. We're very fortunate to bring Summit on board as our chief product officer. Summit is a is a is a successful entrepreneur in his own way, in his own his own right. He has sold his business current previously into a NASDAQ listed company, so has a lot of entrepreneurial himself. He's also been chief product officer at at Vegas, which is a competitive platform to Blackbird. And he's joining Blackbird primarily because he sees BLACKBIRD as a pure play cloud, whereas other companies that have not been pure play cloud where he was before will find it very difficult to move to the cloud. We've had that assurance from lots of other company people in the industry that as a pure play, we're almost like that electric vehicle that, you know, Tesla has that technology, whereas anyone trying to chase Tesla has gotta try and try and rebuild it from scratch. So Summit has seen that has seen that that that that quality in in Blackbird, and that's why he's moved to us.

9:27 The other key people here on this slide here, Movan, and he's got excellent expertise in in direct to customer platform marketing. So he's SVP product marketing. And Morgan, as VP engineering, is now running the the the engineering team, allowing Steven to focus on on building the future of of the Blackbird code at Blackbird ten and really making sure that we're we're pushing forward as a company into new areas and keeping our competitive advantage over the competition. So, really, these two guys are really important to us in terms of in terms of delivering our next iteration of of BLACKBIRD. I'll let Stephen talk about the numbers now. Thank you, Ian. So for the half year, revenue was up 78% year on year to 1,550,000.

10:18 That is as much as we made in the whole of 2020. On the MRR, we've seen good growth over the last three years at 220%. And a reminder that now we kick into the next phase of our tech licensing deal, we have minimum guarantees of 1,300,000 over the five years to underpin that. They are not included in the numbers because the first one falls due within December. Moving on to the order book. At the end of June, it was 3,300,000, up 69% year on year. And I'm pleased to say that that grew to 4,000,000, a record figure at the end of August. In terms of visibility of our 2022 numbers, at the end of June, we had 2,400,000 secured.

11:06 Again, it was up 49% compared to the comparative figure last year. And by the end of August, that figure had grown to just under 2,700,000. Our cash burn increased slightly to 1,300,000, mainly due to investment in the team and in the creator area, which we we had for the rights. Reminder, we have a very strong balance sheet, no debt, and we have 11,600,000 in cash and equivalents at the end of June twenty twenty two. So it's quite a short and snappy presentation today. So in conclusion, we'd just like to remind you that it is a record order book of 4,000,000 as as Steve says. Our tech licensing deal is nearing well, is being delivered, so near near the end of the delivery.

11:53 We've hired some fantastic talent from the market for for growth in the in the greater space, and that self-service product that we referenced is is now in development. Just also as a as a as a as a closing statement, we were also on Microsoft stand for the second time in a row, second major show in a row just now stands last weekend. And so building very nice relationships within the market to to to to push into the public cloud area where where public cloud is gonna be really important to us as a vector for reaching the mass market. That concludes the presentation. I'm very happy now to answer questions from the floor. That's great. Ian, Steve, thank you very much indeed for your presentation this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab that's situated on the right hand corner of your screen.

12:40 I would just want the team to take a few moments to review those questions that were submitted already. I would like to remind you that a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can be accessed via your investor dashboard. Ian, Steve, Steven, we did receive a number of pre submitted questions ahead of today's event as well as as you can see in the q and a channel there. A number of questions have been submitted throughout today's presentation as well. So thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions. And, guys, if I could just hand back to you to run through that q and a tab and where appropriate to do so, if you could please just read out the questions and give your response, and then I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you. Yeah. Absolutely, Jake. I'll do that now. So pretty much a question one. Why have shareholders not been kept in touch with developments this year? Lack of news has not been fair to shareholders, and has shown a lack of interest in shareholders who have kept this company going. I do apologize apologize if you feel that way. As the company matures and and our focus moves more to the two larger circles on that slide that I showed you earlier, individual deals become less important for for for our scale scaling. So it's kind of it's kind of a a a kind of consequence of the of the maturing of the business that we will not be announcing each and every single deal that we make. So I I do understand that some investors look forward to those those piece of news, you know, as we mature, it doesn't really seem appropriate to announce every single logo that we bring in to the company.

14:12 Question number two. What has happened to the licensing agreements, which on numerous occasions were told were imminent? Well, we're working on them. So I think one of the key things about about the this industry is that they like to see a tested and and delivered products first. And and, you know, as we talked about right at the top of the presentation, we are literally rolling it out now to a gold standard US broadcaster. I think it will send real ripples through the industry when when this product is delivered. It will be a a game changer in many ways for for how a production suite would work. And so, yeah, watch watch this space, and and, hopefully, we'll be able to announce some of those soon. Pre submitted question number three.

14:59 Why are we not being provided with the name of the global company we signed up with last year? Because we're under NDA. As soon as we're we're we're able to answer that, we will announce it. And as I said, hopefully, we'll be within 2022. Freestim is a question number four. What has happened with the OEMs signed up? To shareholders, they do not seem to be the ideal model as no information is released under them to shareholders. No information of how many contracts signed up or indication of revenue streams. Well, Steve, do want me to talk about how you break that out and how it's getting? Yeah. We do break up our our revenue into various sectors between the direct infrastructure deals, the OEM deals, and the the licensing sector too. So you'll you'll see if you go back to 2021, you know, our revenues in OEM were up nearly 40%.

15:49 So, again, we'll be splitting that out for our end of year numbers for you. But but, yeah, as Ian mentioned, you know, the size of some of those deals individually are are small, but collectively, you will get to see how how the OEM is performing. Good. Okay. And I've got a question on profitability now. When is the company going to be profitable as this date always seems to be in the future? Again, I'll refer back to, you know, our previous answer on this. Within the existing enterprise business, we expect to get to breakeven within our existing funds. So if you strip out the the amount of money that we raised from our 11,600,000 in cash balance, we have about 4,400,000 left for that that that enterprise business. We expect break even within those resources.

16:35 Okay. So pre submitted question number six is now over twenty two years this company has existed and yet turned over solo. During that time, some tech companies have grown massively in a short period of time, the TikTok and Facebook was the company's view. I have to say, as as a visionary leader, Steven probably was a little bit early in terms of getting this to to market, But the time certainly seems right now, we we've just come back from IBC where cloud is very much on everyone's lips, and we are, as I referenced earlier in terms of hiring in Summit, we are very much a leader in that sector. And and the so the largest companies, not just in the sector, but in the world, have recognized that too. Again, I referenced the fact that we're sitting on Microsoft's stand. So, you know, there's there's a there's an awful lot of patience on it that's that's been given to us from investors, But I would say that now we are we are really getting to our sweet spot in terms of where the industry and the video, not just the m and e, but also the the greater space is looking for for the technology that we have.

17:36 Pre submitted question number seven. Can the company explain with the prospective new partners why the share price has halved from 40 p to 20 p in one year from the same time last year? Well, I think we we could we can start to explain it, but I'm sure that if you read most of the the the commentary on on the tech sector as a whole, that is not unusual. In fact, a number of the company a number of the professional investors that we've been meeting with this week have commented that Blackbird is actually holding up that portfolio rather than actually, you know, being being one of the worst performers, actually one the better performers. So an awful lot's happened within within the tech sector. An awful lot's happened with the macroeconomic politics as well. I So wouldn't wanna comment exactly on on on what on, you know, details around the stock market, but I think we're part of a part of a general global trend.

18:23 Pre submitted question number eight. What is happening to the player? I hope it'll be more than a prototype. What you need what you need to do is release it now. Nothing is burnt for day one. Like Apple and Samsung who bring out each year improved versions, so should the player. Once it is in the market, it can be improved and updated over a period of time. Thank you very much. I I appreciate the iterative development that you're you're referring to there, and I absolutely agree with it. I think there should be a way to to to to iterate a product and then develop it and improve it on the fly. We are releasing in 2023 a a tool for the greater economy, and one of the differentiating factors will be the fact that we have delivery and player part of that. So not wanting to say too much because, of course, we're in a competitive market, and we don't want everyone to know what we're doing, but it's it's it is a certainly case of watch this space.

19:19 The player is is is is gonna be a part of that new product. Okay. So precept into question number nine. Which do you feel went better in terms of company presence? Getting the branding oh, getting the branding on what the company can offer to businesses, IBC twenty two or NAB twenty two? I mean, I think this is simply both of them were fantastic. It's really good to see people back in in in person. As much as we love the virtual space, you know, I'm not I'm not the only person that I've met this week that says it's so much better to meet in person, and there's so much more serendipity that happens. So we were profiled in for both shows in quite a number of areas. We were on Microsoft booth, both of them actually. We had our own spaces for both of them. We're also showcased by EBS for both of them.

20:07 And we were showcased by lightning for both of them as well. So, you know, BlackBerry really has grown in grown in stature and in presence in the industry since the last live shows in 2019. So delighted to see the progress. Both shows were fantastic. Presumption question number 10. I think it's the last one that was presubmitted. Grass Valley and Bitmovin both showed BIRD as a partner on their websites, and that is not reciprocated on by BIRD. Why is that? I think, quite simply, we just don't want we don't wanna put logos upon boards for the sake of it. This is this is both relationships are still quite early. For us to put a to put a a a logo up on a board means something for us quite substantial, and therefore, we want to make sure that there's a use case, a workflow that's being tested before we we would we would chat about it. So, you know, we are, of course, in conversations with with lots of other people in the sector, including including these two companies.

21:01 And when once we get to that point where we have something really tried and tested that can be used by a customer, then we'll announce. What are the terms of the tech licensing deal, Steve? Yeah. So the tech licensing deal is worth a minimum of €1,000,000 over a five year period. There was a development fee of €700,000, of which we recognized about 95% of it as at the end of June. We're now kicking into a sales mate through our tech licensing partner, and we have €1,300,000 minimum guarantee over the five year period. Yeah. First of that minimum guarantee relating to that is about €180,000 this year, which will be recognized at the end of December. Great.

21:49 Good morning. I understand the need for some NDAs, but why has the comms to shareholders dropped to such a low level? Has nothing happened that should be celebrated until now? Should we not be updated when you when you originally have claimed public cloud already over six months ago? You talked about a power by BLACKBIRD PARTNER being announced at the year, but this has moved back again. Where is the honest open communication with shareholders? I I think actually that's a really interesting question because it shows that when we try to talk to bring you up today with all all the the things that we're working on, you say, where is it? Where is it? Where is Well, it's fine. We we will we are working on these things, and I think that it indicates that we are going to be in public cloud, for instance, with our new creator product that's happening as we speak. We are we we would think that when we launch our our self-service model that actually maybe we could update more frequently on in in terms of numbers uptake, etcetera, penetration. I mean, it's a little bit lumpy at the moment in terms of the the the deals that we do, just so just by fact just by the nature of those deals.

22:55 Difficult to to release, you know, regular financial place to the market in that respect because it's little bit bit lumpy and and and the same with regards to same with regards to forecast. But we really you know, we do these presentations so that you guys can ask us questions. You know, we do these these presentations twice a year, plus we have our AGM in in May. You know, this is this is fairly regular, but we will try and make it more regular as more appropriate financial and and and business data comes to mind so that we can that we can get out to the market. So, yeah, that's that's, I guess, the the best way to describe it. Anything else you wanna add to that? No. Great performance. Thank you very much. The revenue growth is great to see. What is the split between one off and recurring revenue?

23:42 So in the period, there were two big items which were nonrecurring. We split out the first few year, which is the most material one, which is the tech licensing deal, which accounted for just over 400,000. That combined with the winter games that we worked on means at about 500,000 or so of revenue is nonrecurring in h one. We always tend to have some, you know, items which are nonrecurring, so I wouldn't be surprised to see other items flowing through over and above the MRR figures that we've given in presentation. Yeah. Question from Sean. How many companies are there that could be could license power by BLACKBIRD? I mean, it's a it's a great question. I think it's not so much how many there are, but what scale they are. So if you're talking about the media sector itself, the media production sector, you know, the the media production sector is a finite amount of money. We we you know, it's it it it is it's a large sector, but it's it's not the largest sector. But, of course, the power by black model can be extended to to companies that are outside of that professional space as well that are much larger scale, you know, which are my West Coast, for instance, tech companies. So I guess it's it's not so much the the the number, but but the but the scale and who were, you know, able to to to license those two.

25:02 So within within the media sector, probably in the region of around 30 to 40 companies will be will be editing and and publishing content. So I hope that answers your question, but, you know, it's it's there's there's much larger opportunities as well in adjacent adjacent sectors. Are there technical difficulties delaying the powered by BIRD launch? No. No. No. No other technical difficulties other than the fact software always takes a little bit longer than than you think, but the fact is that we are currently rolling it out. So educators are being tested and, you know, and and the the the the combined products we road tested. And first first indicators that we get from the market is it's going really well. What is the time scale for launch of the self-service product?

25:47 2023. I don't think it's possible at this stage to to to to say any more detail on that for a number of reasons. One is because, again, we're in a competitive environment. And two is that we've only recently brought on the the key leaders that are that are delivering that product. So it's still a little bit early to to to give you some precise dates. And even if I know them internally, it might not be applicable to to release them publicly to the market at this stage. Question on your competition. Does anyone else do what you do in the same way to the same standard? Are you necessary or just a nice to have? So that's a really good question. Lots of different questions. So I'll I'll start actually from the reverse of that question. Are you necessary or just nice to have? I think in in terms of the remote production and remote editing market, probably was a bit of a nice to have pre 2020 before COVID.

26:41 The remote production and remote editing industry has really become the de facto standard since then. So there's there's a there's a much larger market for us to to to sell into with our technology. And that relates to the other question, the other side of the question that you've asked, which is, does anyone else do what you do in the same way? Quick answer is no. They don't. And and there is there is a lot of issues with scale or lack of scale that that that our competitors have or lack of scalability. But there are lots of people professing to do what we do. So competition and noise has increased. But, actually, do do do they have the same solution as us or the same advantage in technology? They don't. Steven, that's kind of a tech question as well. Do you wanna pick up on on the detail of one?

27:30 Quite a big head start in what we do with the efficiency, and it's very hard to reverse it into an existing product. So I think we're for the for the efficiency and for the the scope of our platform, people won't really be able to catch up for a long time. So I think that is not gonna be our issue. It's more to do with now addressing the market, better, bigger markets, rolling out the technology upgrades. We have a really good technology base. So I think I'm not worried about other people catching up even after this many years. Thanks, Steven. Okay. Next question. Creator economy individual creators are managing very well with tools from Apple and Adobe in simple workflows of camera, card, laptop.

28:22 Why do they need cloud, and why should they switch to another app? What can BLACKBIRD bring to the creator community? Great question. Yes. Of course, there is a there there's an awful lot of video being created, and there's an awful lot of money being made in that sector. It's a $100,000,000,000 sector. It's huge. I could go into lots of detail about this. I would would start would start to move into explaining more about more of the details of the product that we are currently developing, which is probably not wise from a competitor point of view. But I would say that all markets, probably without exception, are are are able to be disrupted with the with the right technology and the right workflow. So this is this is about really thinking about a process, a glass to glass process, which can be streamlined, improved, monetized better.

29:11 You know, we've talked about one particular differentiator in in in the player. We have others that that because of the way the nature of the technology of the codec, we can apply to this to this new product that don't exist in the market today and that will will make workflows more efficient, will make workflows more profitable. So exciting exciting times. Thank you for the question. Watch this space. I think that what we what we intend to to to bring to market will be disruptive and we'll have have a have a have a cheap essential market. Can you give us insight into the can you give us insight into the extent to which the pipeline is busier than this time last year? I I guess the only way we can do that is what we've just done, which is say that the order book is at a is at a record level that is indicative of the fact that we are of higher profile.

30:00 More people know about us. We are on four or five different areas at both major shows this year. The pipeline is busy. There's an awful lot going on. Would actually also remind you that is that is mainly on the on on the infrastructure side of things, If you remember those consent those those centric cycles, those three circles that we put onto the slide is that, you know, the pipeline on the on the infrastructure is very busy. Pipeline on the OEMs is also isn't so very full. Theoretical question. If we were to use your IP to improve a product like Amazon Prime, what sort of thing could it do? What improvements could you make? I'm looking for specific examples for a particular application in the IP. Steven, this is right up your street. Why don't you have a have a go this one?

30:46 There's so much we could do. So the I mean, the main thing we could do is help with the codec. There's there's quite a few patents that we're putting through, which I can't really tell you about until until they've gone a bit further. But if you think about the whole industry, and this also reflects back on the earlier question about the creator economy, it's all very based on what was around quite a long time ago. The distribution system people use is based on codecs that are many years old. The devices can be improved now. If you imagine so on the video side, on the point of view of, like, Amazon as a as a retailer, everything should have video promotion.

31:35 There should be interactivity. There should just be a lot more engagement with the users. And I can't really criticize Amazon Prime much because they've been so successful. And on Amazon as a whole, we also use their cloud, their Amazon Web Services for quite a few of our customers. But they I think it's to do with people start with the technology that is standard, and then they see what they can make with it. But we have the advantage of actually making the technology so we're not constrained by what people have already made. And you'll see that as I say, you'll see that in the next year as we bring new products into new markets. Right. Thanks, Steven.

32:23 Please, can you elaborate on the exclusivity with the first powered by BLACKBIRD deal? Is there a backstop date where the exclusivity expires over I'll stop with that. There's no exclusivity, so we don't need to worry about whether there's a backstop date. So that's that's fine. Where do you see the company in five years? I see that the the the strategic direction that we've indicated is delivered. And so that's that's the the the product that is the the mass market tool for the greater economy with any luck becomes to this de facto way that edit that that that ends conversations that when people say, how do I to to to create video and publish it to YouTube, make some money, it's just use Blackbird. That's where I see the company in in five years.

33:14 What Steven and his and his cohorts of brilliant engineers and Summit Rye and his cohorts of brilliant product people dream up in the meantime is is is is not a focus for them right now, but this five years is a very long time, so there could be a lot things that happened in that time. What impact will higher energy prices and interest rates have on the company? Well, it's It's not a material amount. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I think very efficient. Yeah. Company. There's two answers that I wanna guess in terms of, yeah, what have an efficient tool. So Yeah. So it would make us more attractive customers. But, yeah, it's not really the company itself. Yeah. Our our competitors don't have such energy efficient tools. So, obviously, we get a competitive advantage by being environmentally friendly.

34:00 So. Thanks, Steven. Steve, can you update on the progress oh, sorry. Steven, update on the progress of public cloud at CODEC ten BLACKBIRD ten? Steven, yeah, go ahead. Yeah. So public cloud is core to our our bigger aspirations. We use public cloud every day with our existing customers, but we're going for much bigger audiences through the creator economy, and that will be based entirely on public cloud. So that's progressing nicely. Codec 10, originally designed for player because we've increased the resolution, but that's being extended into use in our updating feeding back into our editing tools as well. So it's all progressing. You'll see it all next year. Thanks, Steven.

34:45 How is Tata progressing and how are the issues hinted at during the finals presentation being resolved? Well, as we as we did indicate during finals, the relationship with Tata has been somewhat disappointing in terms of in terms of scale at this stage. We have not we have not stopped talking to them. We still have live live contracts with them, and we're looking at potentially finding a way to streamline that that integration so that we can we can scale together. But nothing has been nothing has really changed since since we talked about the final presentation. Can Steven comment on recurring revenues and why these are flat, as Steve and I? If business is expanding, should these not be increased? It's a good question. Yeah. TownNews lost a lost a customer within the period. So as you know, we're an integral part of TownNews, but there's only a small part of their end to end solution, which is why you didn't see an increase.

35:38 But a reminder as well that, you know, you know, the tech licensing deal and the minimum guarantee will kick in towards the end of the year. That's not being recognized to date as well, so that will have that will have a nice impact in terms of our our revenues too. Yeah. Good. Good. What has happened to Blockchain? I think we've answered that question, so nothing else to add on to that one. Why have we not seen more insider purchases in recent periods if the share is considered undervalued? Well, I'm saying we did a race just before Christmas. You know, the the resources that our that our insiders have are are not limitless, and we're we are you know, we've really bought off a lot of stock, and we are very much believers in the in in the in the Blackbird future growth and and success.

36:23 But I guess our pockets are not are not ever ending in terms of in terms of what we can put in. That said, I I, you know, don't rule it out in the future. Where can investors find out more about the patents explained in layman's terms to help explain the advantage the company has? Why can't others emulate it or better the IP? I don't know which one of you want to take that one. Steven, do wanna talk about the emulation, the IP first? Yes. So the patents are published normally after about two years, so you can read them. We have we've made our IP strategy a lot more sophisticated following the fundraising last year.

37:13 And the new patents, I think, you will find more comprehensible than the original ones. They were previously very restricted to highly technical areas. And now, low to technical areas, they're much much sort of more simply explained and the claims are much simpler. So I think the easiest way is to wait for the patents to be published. And the new patents, we've been increasing the number of them and they will be more comprehensible and there's more emphasis on explanation as well as just the actual detail of the of the patents. We we originally used to patent mostly around the codex, but we have a lot more areas now including applications of the codex and also some product ideas as well which we can protect.

38:04 So I think you have to wait, though, for two years after the patent is filed before it's published. But you'll find that going forward, that will be a lot easier to follow. Thank you, Steve. You wanna add anything? No. I think we have that. Well done, Steve. Is the exclusivity clause with the cover of the no exclusivity clause? So let me know if that question is not one of them. Think there's there's nothing there in that steel that needs to be worried about terms of exclusivity. Can you widen on Summit's role when new products might be released? I mean, quite simply, Summit's role is to is to look at the product portfolio as a whole. So it's right the way across our our our portfolio. That's the m and e space and the future greater space, and to to ideate, to to design, and to execute a product launch. And what with that, he will work with in house design team. He'll work with Steven's engineering team. He'll work with product marketing.

39:05 Of course, he worked very closely with me to to do that. So yeah. So it's it's a it's it's it's a it's a broad role that Summit has and a lot of responsibility, and it's really exciting to have them onboard. Does the BLACKBIRD technology have a use in movie production workflow? I mean, potentially, yes. It does. It's it's it's a strategic question, this one really is. Which way which way do you think the company will be able to penetrate the larger market? So potentially, you know, we could chase the the the the the high end or we could go to the, you know, to the to the to to, I'll say, the low end, but, you know, to to the to the the greater space where where extensive and and, you know, features that would make Star Wars, for instance, are not so important.

39:53 But the but the other end is is used by fewer people. The greater economy is used by many people. So I think that might be the answer that you're looking for. Are you close to signing more powered by BIRD deals or advanced discussions? At this stage, I'm not gonna announce anything else with regards to to to future conversations other than the fact that they are live. Just wondering why you are not in the same room together. Are the c suite dynamics still strong? That's very funny. Yes. They are. Yes. They are still strong. Thank you, Sean. I we're out on the road this week, Steve and I, meeting our our professional investors in the city. And Steven is not is not doing that.

40:38 He's not he's he's hard at work pushing the codec forward and and is is is not involved in those conversations directly. But it's Every minute that I'm not in the city, I'm working on BLACKBIRD ten. Yeah. So I think that's a good division of labor here. Exactly. We're we're it's it's making sure that we've got the right resources in the right places. How many direct employees do you currently have? Direct and and non directs? Yeah. At the end of June, we had 36 employees, so up from the 23 at the end of June last year. Yeah. Do you think that you're underpricing your products? I mean, this is a this is a competitive market. There's lots of pricing in the markets, and we're a challenger brand that that that will, you know, aim to penetrate the market deeply.

41:23 So I do not think we're underpricing our product. I think it's about making sure that we are demonstrating the advantage of our product, but but but not making unrealistic prices so that people, you know, have other other options. So what are your thoughts on The US listing of of BIRD? That's there's there's absolutely no interest, hardly any volume traded. That is correct. There's hardly been any any any volume traded, but there's not been any promotion of the of the listing at this stage either. I would have hoped to get to the to The US for most of this year, but as you can probably see from this presentation, I've been pretty busy in terms of hiring staff, terms of getting new product underway. I think when there's a there's a there's a there's a product for the mass market through the public cloud vector, that will be a time to promote it more heavily.

42:11 Next question. It's been previously mentioned that the player will collect large amounts of data. Is the plan for BLACKBIRD to process and monetize this data, or would you look to JV with third parties on the player? If so, what kind of third party? Great question. That is probably a little bit too much more detail in the in in how the new product's gonna look at this stage to to to explain. But you're absolutely right that the player can process data, and so it could be a could be a very interesting angle for for the development of it. Watch this space. For Steven, if your player is so advanced, is it likely to be taken up by the market? I'm hoping it's not another twenty years or or or so again.

42:56 But, Steven, do want to pick that one up? Yes. The point of the player is that it can be used by anyone. I mean, from a technology point of view, it runs in a browser. You don't need to install anything. Every machine, you know, every phone, every laptop, every PC is compatible with it. So it's really now part of a product question, and that's something that Summit is focusing on is how to make it a product success rather than just a technology success. Right. Okay. A couple of direct customer questions here. Are BLACKBIRD involved in Formula one? We haven't announced Formula one as a as a customer. No doubt, lots of Formula one goes through our our system and part of other broadcasters, but we haven't announced one with the customer.

43:46 Would you say that at the heart of your growth model is now really powered by Blackbird and not direct via OEM? I would refer you back to the slide that we put on with the three circles. Directs are not the the the key focus as we showed on that model. Scaling through OEM and powered by and moving into a mass market tool that is self-service is definitely is definitely the direction of travel. And nothing's really changed there. I mean, that's always been the direction of travel. We've shown that slide many times. Oh, Liverpool's for the customer. As a Liverpool fan, and I I admit that even in this current climate, yes, they're not they're actually not a customer anymore. Sadly, we we don't have we do have arsenal as a customer still, Steve's team, but sadly not Liverpool.

44:33 I find these q and a's very reassuring. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Sean. Is it possible to increase the frequency until powered by BLACKBIRD launch is complete? Well, we and we do our announcements twice a year as per market regulation, and we do the the one in in in May for the AGM. But point taken, if you would like these questions these q and a's to be more regular, let's take that away and and see what we can do. I I think it's an interesting suggestion. Do you think the current share price is good value? I I yeah. Very good value. But then, you know, I'm I'm not a financial adviser. I'm not gonna be I'm gonna take a take a you know, advise people to buy stock, obviously. However, I would say it's really good value. It's got a long way to go. You know our ambitions here, Grant.

45:25 And so, yeah, it's it's exceptional. Steven still has a great head of hair. Yes. He does. Doesn't he have a great head of hair? Yeah. I actually he looks I was say he looks like the Amazon cloud. Yeah. But, yes, may maybe time for a little trim. No. I only had a haircut last week. I just can't stop it growing. I really wish I had a bunch of hair. Okay. Are you sharing information to professional investors that as prime investors, we're not privy to? Absolutely not, Colin. What is the current relationship with MediKind? MediKind and and and BLACKBIRD are absolutely in in in conversation. As someone mentioned earlier, we are on our logo. We were taking some of their feeds actually for the the Microsoft demonstration, which is around the MBA and IBC.

46:12 They're big fans of of of our technology. We're big fans of theirs. So it's a it's a it's a it's a relationship that both sides are nurturing nicely at the moment. It'd great to have a showcase event for your tech for investors, please. Okay. Point taken. I think that would be that would be great, actually, especially as the new product comes to to fruition. It'd be brilliant to to to bring some investors into into a room and talk you through what we're doing possibly here in in our in our broker's office in London would be would be great, actually. Got some nice space here. So thank you for the suggestion. We'll take that away. Age on Veritone. Ah, that's a good one. Veritone and and Blackbird's discussion. An an integration with them would be desirable, but it hasn't been a priority.

47:04 What's to stop someone whipping up your great technology with a hostile takeover? Well, the way that the stock is is held would make that very difficult, I I think, given the fact that on this call, currently, there's more than 25% of the of of the stock and the rest is held by, you know, some some investors that are very close to knowing what the story has the potential of. So I think it's difficult. Anyone wanna add to that? No. And on that last question, that seems to be the last question for now. Any other questions before we finish, before we wrap up? I think we have managed to answer everybody's. Absolutely. Ian, Steve, Steven, if I may just jump back in there, thank you very much indeed for taking the time to address all of those questions that came in from investors this morning. And, of course, if there are any further questions that are submitted today, we'll make these available to you immediately after the presentation has ended for you to review and then add any additional responses where it's appropriate to do so.

48:04 Ian, perhaps before redirecting those on the call to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company, if I could please just ask you for a few closing comments to wrap up with, that'd be great. Yeah. Absolutely. There is a there's a there's a few key themes through this. First of all, we've got outstanding results in terms of growth, 78% up on a record order book, so it shows future future sales are looking very healthy. Secondly, that tech licensing deal that is rolling out as we speak will send ripples through the obviously, shockwaves. Obviously, shockwaves through the industry in terms of the the functionality of a production suite that doesn't exist today. It's it's a game changing in in innovation. And for and and, fourthly, just to say that we are we're well on with developing our our self-service model that we will see in 2023.

48:55 Teams onboard, technology exists, Products are being developed as we speak. So so what's the space? Really exciting times for us. Ian, that's great. And Steve and Steven as well, thank you very much indeed for taking the time to update investors today. Could I please ask investors not close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order the management team can best understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of BLACKBIRD PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session, so good afternoon to you all.