Website: Rapid TV News
Indian media concern Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) has finished its fiscal year with a strong quarter which helped the company just into positive growth territory for the full year in some key metrics.
Zeel is one of India’s major broadcasters and was hit hard early last year by adverse trading conditions as economies worldwide slumped or slowed.
But the company seems now to have ridden out the worst – and in such a huge economy, the worst proved not to be too bad for one of the major market players.
Total revenues for the quarter ended March 31 2010 were up 26% on the corresponding period 2009, to Rs6,493 million (US$146 million).
That pushed full year revenues to Rs21,966 million, up 1% on 2009.
Advertising revenues were Rs3,517 million and subscription revenues Rs2,513 million for quarter.
While advertising revenues increased by 54%, subscription revenues showed an increase of 7% as compared to the corresponding period last fiscal.
Subscription revenues from domestic DTH were Rs683 million during this quarter, an increase of 79% over 4Q 2009.
Operating profit (EBITDA) for the fourth quarter of FY2010 was Rs 1,836 million, up 53% and operating profit margin stood at 28.3%. For the full year, operating profit stood at Rs 6,087 million, up 11%, and EBITDA margin was at 27.7%.
Profit after Tax for the quarter stood at Rs 1,288 million, up 33% on the corresponding quarter, and for the year stood at Rs 4,775 million, down 8%.
But in its statement, Zeel said that as the fourth quarter numbers included the financial results of the Regional General Entertainment Channel business (R-GEC) acquired from Zee News, the fourth quarter figures were not comparable with the corresponding quarter 2009.
Subhash Chandra, Chairman, ZEEL, said: “Despite slowdown, FY2010 was a good year for the television media industry in many ways.
“The number of TV households continued to grow at a healthy pace. More importantly, there are close to 21 million direct to home digital pay TV homes in the country, up from 12 million in March 2009.
“In my view, this has been the most important development for the industry.
“While the economic slowdown did impact the growth in advertising revenues, some steps towards consolidation were good for the industry economics.
“Advertising on television media is hugely under priced in India, as are Pay-TV ARPUs. As an industry, we have to continue to work towards bringing corrections and I am hopeful of improvement in the coming years.”
Punit Goenka, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, ZEEL, said: “I am confident that our content-focused approach combined with better monetization of subscription revenues, especially from digital markets, will contribute to the company delivering steady and attractive shareholder returns in the years ahead as well.
“The coming fiscal should benefit from a better economic climate and we remain focused on delivering superior content to viewers and a stronger relationship with our consumers.” Mr. Goenka added.
