Quantel, the market leader in graphics workstations for TV companies, has effectively been put up for sale by its owners, London, UK-based media and TV Group Carlton Communications Plc. While no formal statement has been made, leaks from the company suggests that it wants to concentrate on its core interests – and would not be averse to an offer for Quantel, which despite a dominant market share has been struggling recently.
Carlton bundles Quantel’s figures in with its audio products subsidiary SSL but Quantel accounts for 90% of the total and was primarily responsible for a 15% fall in revenue to 58.4m pounds ($94m) in its last financial year with operating profit down 64% at 5.1m pounds ($8.2m). Uncertainty over digital TV in the US and a slump in the Far East were blamed for the downturn which led to cuts in overheads and a 10% reduction in the workforce.
Quantel uses its own proprietary platform – an official was reluctant to name the operating system it uses and argued that the identity of the processor was irrelevant. Like Silicon Graphics, it is facing pressure at the low-end from competitors using standard Wintel platforms.
Yet the processing power needed for television work ensures that its systems are formidably powerful and expensive. The standard Editbox goes for around $160,000 while a high-end Infinity will cost over $800,000.
What gives Quantel optimism over the future is the prospect of a resurgence in the US TV market, where the hefty spending necessary to offer high-definition TV has squeezed other budgets. Quantel is developing a system which will handle the proliferation of HDTV standards in the US which could be rolled out next year.
