Several deferred orders caused revenue to fall by nearly half in International Datacasting Corp.’s fiscal first quarter, but its CEO said he expects the firm to return to profitability by year-end.
Sales were down 47 per cent to $2.83 million, largely due to non-renewal of the Canadian Forces Radio and Television service contract, which ended March 31.
IDC’s net loss sunk to $1.57 million, a worsening of the $102,000 loss booked a year earlier.
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CEO Doug Lowther also noted three deals – which would have brought in close to $1 million total – have been deferred to future quarters.
Mr. Lowther stressed the digital content distributorhas not lost these deals. Products have already been shipped in one case with revenue expected in the second quarter. The second deal has been delayed by the customer’s demand for extra testing and the third one, a substantial contract with the U.S. government, has been delayed by new legislation. Still, the company expects these deals to go through in the last half of the year.
“While revenue in the first quarter was below our expectations, we made excellent progress in restructuring our business for lower costs and in launching two new products that we believe will lead to enhanced competitiveness and revenues later in the year,” said Mr. Lowther said in a conference call. “We remain confident that IDC will reach profitability by the end of the current fiscal year.”
The new products, Titan 3 and Laser MPS, were launched in April at the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas.
The company’s website says the Titan 3 encoder is built to tackle the unique challenges of professional outdoor broadcasting.
Mr. Lowther said testing is on or ahead of schedule for it and he expects to ship it for revenue this quarter.
The website says the Laser MPS or multi program splicer, will allow broadcasters to increase ad revenue and create regional viewing experiences. Mr.Lowther says customer trials will happen in the third quarter and he expects revenue in the fourth.
The company’s annual general meeting will be held July 10 in Ottawa.
