M+E Daily

Nearly every business segment for Paris-based Technicolor saw a significant quarterly boost in revenue for the first three months of the year, but it was the company’s recent acquisition of Cisco’s connected devices segment that company CEO Fred Rose wanted to signal out.

“… Obviously the acquisition of Cisco connected devices has boosted our numbers tremendously in this first quarter …,” Rose said during a conference call with investors. “But the growth organically before Cisco connected devices in Europe and North America is incredibly impressive on the basis of wins we recorded last year. Added to that, the impact of Cisco connected devices we feel very, very good.”

The acquisition of Cisco’s connected devices segment helped boost Technicolor’s connected home revenue a staggering 122% for the quarter, to $805 million.

Cisco contributed $457 million of that. Overall, Technicolor posted revenue of $1.45 billion for the quarter, up nearly 57% year over year.

In North America, connected home revenue was up 312% year over year, thanks not only to Cisco, but stronger licensing of Technicolor’s products by cable companies, a better mix of satellite set top box products being sold, and better revenues from Technicolor’s Connected Life devices and services unit.

The company’s entertainment services division — covering both DVD and production services — also saw a significant boost, up 33% to $519 million. On the production front, Technicolor managed VFX work for “Suicide Squad,” “Ghostbusters,” “Tarzan,” “Zoolander 2” and “Miss Peregrine,” with “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” and “X-Men: Apocalypse” also in the mix. On the TV front, Technicolor handled work on the new seasons of “Vikings,” “Penny Dreadful,” Bates Motel and “The Strain.”

DVD volumes rose 25% year over year , while Blu-ray Disc was up 26%, both a reflection of Technicolor’s late-November acquisition of Cinram’s disc replication services. During the quarter, Technicolor worked on disc releases of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Spectre” and “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.”

“Our DVD services [saw] growth of 25% year-on-year mainly as a result of the win of two major new customers being Fox and Lionsgate, which as you know we are executing … on the basis of us having acquired a large part of Cinram North American’s assets in the fourth quarter last year,” Rose said.

“We also have had some good success in the first quarter around developing some original premium content for virtual reality. This is not something that is a huge market today financially but it is certainly one that is challenging from a technological standpoint. We have taken the opportunity of the launch of quite a new number of devices to work with a number of brands and studios at creating content.”