Zoo celebrates maiden half year profit

Operating profits for the six months to September 30 rose 36 per cent to $880,000 and the group made a maiden interim pre-tax profit $388,000, which compares with a loss of $232,000 last time.

Stuart Green, chief executive of ZOO Digital, said: "Whilst our short term growth depends on our existing market of major Hollywood studios, during the course of the year we have started to explore the applicability of our software tools to a much wider audience and to deliver a greater range of services.

"We continue to add new products to our suite of tools which help our customers achieve cost savings and protect their brand integrity, and I am particularly pleased with the progress we have made in helping our customers exploit Apple's iTunes system for the distribution of video.

The Sheffield-based group has launched a new service that allows full movie material to be downloaded via the Apple iTunes platform.

Previously the cost of producing the extras that come with DVDs has been prohibitive for the on-line version so customers downloading films from the internet were only offered the basic film.

But the company's new software means that popular extras such as stills, deleted scenes, exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes footage can also be downloaded.

Apple will be the first to offer a DVD-style experience, but Zoo hopes to launch the service on other platforms over time.

Zoo's new software means that the typical $10,000 to $15,000 cost of putting extras on the internet version can be reduced to a couple of thousand dollars.