ITV

Category: Financials

  • SITI Networks’ Q1FY22 Operating EBITDA jumps 33.1% to Rs 537 Mn

    SITI Networks’ Q1FY22 Operating EBITDA jumps 33.1% to Rs 537 Mn

    New Delhi: SITI Networks, an Essel Group company and multi-system operator (MSO), has released its consolidated audited financial results for Q1FY22 ending June 30.

    In line with its profitable growth strategy, SITI has maintained persistent elevation in operating EBITDA reporting 33.1 per cent growth over Q4FY21. The company reported operating EBITDA of Rs 537 million in Q1FY22 as against Rs 403 million q-o-q basis.

    The company’s operating EBITDA margin expanded to 14.8 per cent in FY22 against 10.4 per cent in the previous quarter. This was achieved through building up operating efficiencies and strict control over costs.

    Total revenue (excluding activation) stood at Rs 3,619 million in Q1FY22. The company earned a subscription revenue of Rs 2,378 million in Q1FY22.

    SITI Broadband’s net base increased 22 per cent y-o-y to Rs 2.06 lakh at the end of Q1FY22. SITI Broadband’s Q1FY22 revenue also surged 25.2 per cent y-o-y to Rs 276 million.

    SITI Networks CEO Anil Malhotra said, “SITI had a good quarter on the back of our focus on operational efficiencies, and strict control over expenses. Our operating EBITDA surged 33.1 per cent q-o-q to Rs 537 million and operating EBITDA margins expanded to 14.8 per cent in Q1FY22. SITI Broadband’s base increased 22 per cent y-o-y to Rs 2.06 lakh while its revenue surged 25.2 per cent y-o-y to Rs 276 million in Q1FY22.”

    “This quarter provided us with the necessary momentum to further drive our efficiency focus throughout FY22. We intend to focus on it along with solid EBITDA and margins growth, in line with our core strategy of profitable and sustainable growth,” he added.
     

  • NXTDigital revenue up 13.5% in Q1FY22

    NXTDigital revenue up 13.5% in Q1FY22

    Mumbai: NXTDigital Ltd, the media vertical of the global Hinduja Group and an integrated digital distribution platform delivering services through digital cable television, HITS (Headend-In-The-Sky) and broadband, continued to leverage innovation and strategy to combat the challenges of the second wave to post strong results for the quarter ending 30 June.

    On a consolidated basis, the company’s revenues grew by 13.5 per cent in the first quarter of the current financial year 2021-22 to Rs 266.6 crore against revenues of Rs 234.8 crore during the same period in the previous year. The broadband business continued to grow touching 6.7 lakh subscribers which amounts to 93 per cent growth over Q1 FY21.  

    Several contracts in the video and broadband segments of business which got delayed due to the second wave were signed by the company.

    “The Q1 performance exhibits the company’s agility and reflexes – being able to innovate and maintain its momentum through a quarter impacted by the second wave,” said NXTDigital Ltd, MD & CEO, Vynsley Fernandes. “With the situation easing up, we are confident that implementation of our PaaS platform and the roll-out of our 100 NXTHUB project will see traction. Whilst we look to commence our infra sharing model with Siti Networks and then extend it to other MSOs, our 100 NXTHUB launch later this month from Ranchi and then on to other geographies, will continue to keep us well on the growth track.”

  • Dentsu Group records organic revenue growth of 15% for Q2

    Dentsu Group records organic revenue growth of 15% for Q2

    New Delhi: Dentsu Group has witnessed a significant rebound in performance for the quarter ended June, recording organic revenue growth of 15 per cent. The Group has announced its results for the first half as well as the second quarter of 2021.

    Dentsu Japan Network grew by 12 per cent while Dentsu International registered a growth of 17 per cent, showing strong sequential improvement over Q1 decline of 2.4 per cent.

    “As we pass the anniversary of the start of the pandemic, revenues continue to recover across all regions with strong growth in digital solutions. Client confidence is restoring with spending levels more resilient and predictable,” said the group in its earnings statement. “Operating margin improvement continues to exceed expectations, substantially ahead of the prior year, with Q2 improving by 370 basis points year on year, showing the gearing effect of higher revenue together with cost reductions being implemented.”

    The Group expects high single-digit organic growth for FY2021, with a line of sight to delivering the long held 2022 margin targets of 20 per cent for Dentsu Japan Network and 15 per cent for Dentsu International one year early. 

    “Dentsu Group delivered a strong second quarter performance, reflecting the growing consumer and client confidence we see across all regions. Underlying profit growth continues to be strong, exceeding our expectations, and demonstrates our commitment to our margin targets,” said Dentsu Group Inc, CEO and president, Toshihiro Yamamoto. 

    APAC (excluding Japan) recorded a growth of 3.6 per cent. The APAC region reported double digit growth in the second quarter driven by double digit growth from Australia, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand. EMEA reported 8.7 per cent organic growth in H1, FY21, and 22 per cent in Q2, FY21. 

    “Whilst the future path of the pandemic remains uncertain, our full year guidance confirms our confidence in the outlook for the second half of FY2021, as well as our ability to meet our medium-term targets by 2024,” added Yamamoto.

  • NDTV records best-ever Q1 with a profit of Rs 13.9 cr

    NDTV records best-ever Q1 with a profit of Rs 13.9 cr

    Mumbai: The NDTV Group has reported over two-fold increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 16.56 crore for the first quarter ended 30 June, marking its best first quarter result in over a decade.

    Its TV news channel-  NDTV Ltd raked in a profit of Rs 13.9 crores in Q1, along with NDTV Convergence, the digital arm of the Group, which has delivered an increase of 41 percent in revenue over the same time last year.

    According to the regulatory filing, the company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 7.55 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal. Its consolidated revenue from operations during April-June 2021 stood at Rs 85.02 crore as against Rs 72.73 crore in the year-ago period. Total expenses stood at Rs 77.92 crore, compared with Rs 64.64 crore a year ago, the company said. The Group’s total liabilities have been reduced by Rs 23 crores in this quarter; bank borrowings are down by Rs 8.7 crores.

    “NDTV, with the support of each employee, has worked to mitigate any uncertainty caused by the impact of the pandemic on the economy and all businesses. It thanks its team for their superlative reporting and commitment to providing news as an essential service at this difficult time. Given the economic landscape, the Management will control expenses and focus all efforts on ensuring the Company’s financial position strengthens further,” it said in the filing.

    The company also said that its board has appointed Grant Thornton Bharat LLP (formerly Grant Thornton India LLP) as its internal auditors for one year, with effect from 11 August.

  • Zee Entertainment’s net profit rises 604% in June ’21 quarter

    Zee Entertainment’s net profit rises 604% in June ’21 quarter

    New Delhi: Zee Entertainment Enterprises’ consolidated net profit rose 604 per cent to Rs 213.8 crore in the quarter ended June 2021 as against Rs 30.37 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2020. The company announced its Q1 FY22 results on Friday.

    Sales rose 35.29 per cent to Rs 1774.98 crore in the quarter ended June 2021 as against Rs 1312.03 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2020. With lockdowns in most states, TV viewership again jumped during the quarter, though lower than Q1 of last year.

    Domestic ad revenues for both Q1FY22 and Q1FY21 were impacted by lockdowns. However, the impact this year was much lower, reflected in 127.9 per cent YoY growth. Compared to Q1FY20, domestic ad revenues were lower by 22.7 per cent.

    In terms of subscription revenue, the network said embargo on pricing change due to NTO 2.0 litigation continued to hurt domestic television pay revenue growth. The 2 per cent growth over Q1FY21 was driven primarily by digital business.

    The programming cost increased YoY as original content production largely continued across the states during the lockdown at alternate locations. Increase in marketing cost on a YoY basis was on account of the release of Radhe and continued investments in ZEE5. The marketing costs in Q1FY21 was lower on account of much lower original content production.

    Lower ad revenues on one hand and increase in costs due to lockdown Rs. 271mn on the other affected EBITDA for the quarter.

    Bengali, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi movies continued strong performance, however, Zee TV, Zee Marathi and Zee Tamil performance was soft during the quarter, indicating headroom for growth in key markets. The company also said it will revamp the programming line-up for Hindi, Marathi and Tamil programming in Q2.

    Streaming platform ZEE5 witnessed 80.2mn global monthly active users and 7.1mn global daily active users in Jun ’21. It recorded a total of 190 minutes’ average watch time per viewer per month in Q1. As many as 11 original movies and shows were released during the quarter.

  • Network18 posts net profit of Rs 121 cr in Q1′ 21

    Network18 posts net profit of Rs 121 cr in Q1′ 21

    New Delhi: Network18 Media & Investments Ltd reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 121.51 crore for the first quarter ended June 2021. The company had posted a net loss of Rs 60.60 crore for the April-June period of the previous fiscal.

    Consolidated revenue from operations rose 50.47 per cent to Rs 1,214.43 crore, as against Rs 807.07 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. The operating margin stood at 15.5 per cent, highest-ever in the first quarter, despite the impact of the second wave. News margin at 15 per cent, revenue up 17 per cent YoY, while digital News maintained its break-even; revenue rose 89 per cent YoY (up 44 per cent vs Q1FY20).

    Total expenses were at Rs 1,080.79 crore, up 23.99 per cent from Rs 871.65 crore earlier.

    TV News advertising remained resilient despite the second wave, led by a rise in news consumption and digital events replacing physical ones. News genre viewership jumped 28 per cent quarter-to-quarter led by the second wave and multiple state and elections. “The TV News ad-revenue remained in growth territory vs Q1FY20, adjusted for election-linked advertising, Digital News was minimally impacted by the second wave. Growing salience of the medium for advertisers as well as consumers (especially during COVID peaks) supported revenue,” said the company.

    Network18 Chairman Adil Zainulbhai said, “The second wave of COVID-19 could have been the dominant theme for the industry and indeed for us during the quarter…. but it wasn’t. We have been able to continue our businesses relentlessly and profitably. While advertising hit a speedbreaker (primarily in entertainment), growing engagement on our platforms across TV and Digital make us confident of delivering for all our stakeholders even amidst a choppy environment. We continue to invest to ramp up offerings on our class-leading digital platforms, as their reach expands to highest ever levels. At the same time, we are selectively creating segmented offerings to enhance our TV portfolio in a capital-efficient manner.”

  • Pandemic drags down DishTV India’s FY’21 financials

    MUMBAI: India’s first DTH operator Dish TV India continues to slog it out to get out of the financial quagmire it has got itself into. That’s despite the fact that the company  has seen a loss of subscribers in its latest quarter ended 31 March 2021 and for the full year, its top line has dipped even as it continues to report losses. According to its audited Q4 FY 21 results released yesterday, Dish TV India  has reported consolidated subscription revenues of Rs  685.2 crore (Rs 776.6 crore in Q4 FY’20) and operating revenues of Rs  751.7 crore (Rs 869.06 crore). EBITDA for the quarter was Rs 426 crore (Rs 543.2 crore). Net loss was Rs 1415.3 crore as against a loss of Rs 1456.2 crore  in the same quarter last year.

    Subscription revenues for the whole year have fallen from Rs 3192.8 crore in FY ’20 to Rs 2987.4 crore in FY’21, even  as operating revenues saw a reduction to Rs 3249.4 crore as against Rs 3556.3 crore in FY20.  EBITDA for the full year fell to Rs 2017 crore as against Rs 2106 crore in FY’20. However, to its credit, it has reduced the red ink on its bottomline to Rs 1189.9 crore as against Rs 1654.8 crore in the previous financial year.

    What helped it shore up its performance in the latest financial year is its hard focus on shaving expenditure which it has reduced by 15 per cent to Rs 1232.4 crore as against Rs 1450.4 crore in FY ’20.  

    Dish TV management said the company has been hit by the sporadic lockdowns due to the ongoing pandemic during the year and the last quarter. “The later part of the fourth quarter saw re-emergence of urban to rural migration, amongst migrant workers. The sporadic lockdowns have left many in the aspiring class with reduced disposable incomes while taking a toll on overall consumer confidence. Subscriber churn, thus remained on the higher side during the quarter and full year,” said Dish TV India group CEO Anil Dua in a press release.

    Additionally, the company largely relied on internal cash flows for capital expenditure and for debt reduction. Hence, it kept a tight rein on capital expenditure which in turn limited new subscriber additions, and when compounded with high subscriber churn, it  led to a net reduction in its subscriber base.

    Overall, Dish TV repaid Rs 213 crore of its debt in the quarter, reducing its loan  exposure to Rs 809.9 crore at end FY’21 as against  Rs 1817.5 crore at end FY20.  

    Said Dish TV chairman & managing director Jawahar Goel: “The year gone by was difficult but has left us stronger with all the innovations and process improvements in place. However, with continuing uncertainties, we maintain a cautious stand. A strong balance sheet boosts confidence in such tough times and our focus on paying down debt and other liabilities is in that direction only.”

    Dua said that investors need to take heart about the positive manner in which Dish TV has pivoted to take advantage of the opportunities that the pandemic has thrown up. “Effectively, the pandemic rushed the need to innovate. Be it artificial intelligence for resolving customer complaints, enabling work-from home for customer care agents and employees, developing set-top-boxes and other key accessories in India, moving trade partners to a fully digital recharge mode or upgrading our OTT platform, Watcho, we rose to the challenges thrown by the trying year while touching new highs in EBITDA margins.”

    What according to the two of them shows promise is the growth in sign-ons to DishTV’s OTT service Watcho to 25 million by FY 21 year end as against just a million users in January 2020.  Said Dua: “At Dish TV India, it has always been our endeavor to meet the entertainment needs of all our subscribers all the time. Watcho is a step in that direction and delivers a seamless, streaming entertainment experience to viewers through future ready technology and diverse content.”

    Dua is quite optimistic about the company’s fortunes pointing to the important role TV continues to play in viewers lives in India, and believes that a revival in discretionary spending, due to economic activity normalizing going forward, will improve business revenues. The company is going ahead with the procedures relating to raising funds through a rights issue totting up to Rs 1,000 crore.

  • PVR records Q4 net loss of Rs 289.12 cr amid Covid blues

    PVR records Q4 net loss of Rs 289.12 cr amid Covid blues

    New Delhi : Multiplex major PVR Ltd continues to bear the brunt of the ongoing pandemic, as it recorded a consolidated net loss of Rs 289.12 crore in the quarter ended on March 31.

    The company reported a net loss of Rs 74.49 crore in the same quarter of the last fiscal. Total income during the period under review was Rs 263.26 crore against Rs 661.78 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago, it said in a regulatory filing, on Wednesday.

    According to PVR, the results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2021, are not comparable with results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2020, as the operations were impacted due to the lockdowns restrictions, staggered re-openings, limited content flow and low consumer confidence.

    FY 2020-21 was one of the toughest years for the multiplex industry and the company was able to successfully navigate the challenges on account of Covid-19 through a continuous focus on reducing fixed costs and keeping adequate liquidity on the balance sheet, said the multiplex major on Wednesday.

    While there were no major Bollywood or Hollywood movie releases in Q4 FY’21, the Southern film industry witnessed strong recovery. But, that too, was marred by the resurgence of the second wave in April, compelling the company to take necessary measures to manage its costs and preserve liquidity.

    However, PVR chairman-cum-managing director Ajay Bijli expressed confidence that the company will bounce back stronger than ever once things start to normalise after mass vaccination.

    As on date, none of its cinemas are operational due to lockdowns implemented by state governments, and even after cinemas are re-opened, its business will continue to be impacted, said PVR.

    “We may not be able to run our cinemas at normal capacity on account of social distancing measures that cinemas may be required to follow as well as health concerns that the patrons may have. On account of this, our revenue and cash flow generation may be impacted even when we fully resume operations,” the company said.

    The multiplex operator said it continues to incur committed cash outflows, including employee salary pay-outs, other overheads as well as payments. It has been able to achieve a reduction of 63 per cent in the fixed cost during the period of lockdown in FY21, which covered rent, personnel costs, electricity and water charges and other overheads.

  • ITC records Q4 net profit of Rs 3,817 cr

    ITC records Q4 net profit of Rs 3,817 cr

    New Delhi: ITC Ltd on Tuesday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,816.84 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2021.

    The cigarette-FMCG-to-hotel major had posted a net profit of Rs 3,926.46 crore during the January-March quarter of the previous fiscal, according to the regulatory filing. The revenue from operations rose to Rs 15,404.37 crore during the quarter under review. It was Rs 12,560.64 crore in the corresponding period of 2019-20.

    However, ITC said its results for this quarter are not comparable with the earlier period as it also includes the revenue of Sunrise Foods, which it had acquired on 27 July last year. “The financial results of the group and ‘FMCG Others’ of the quarter and the financial year ended on 31 March 2021 include those of Sunrise from 27 July 2020 and consequently are not comparable with previous periods,” it said in the filing.

    The total expenses of ITC stood at Rs 10,944.64 crore in Q4 FY 2020-21.

    The sale of cigarettes recorded significant improvement during the quarter under review, while the ITC hotel business was severely impacted by the pandemic. Revenue from its cigarette business rose nearly 14.2 per cent to ₹5,859 crore for March quarter, compared with ₹5,130 crore in the corresponding period. On the other hand, the revenue from the hotel business reported a 38 per cent year-on-year decline to ₹287.77 crore in Q4FY21. Revenue of the remaining FMCG business fell 1.5 per cent to Rs 3,694.8 crore.

    For the full fiscal year 2020-21, ITC’s net profit was at Rs 13,389.80 crore, with a net profit of Rs 15,584.56 crore in FY20. Revenue from operations came in at Rs 53,155.12 crore, compared to Rs 51,393.47 crore in 2019-20.

  • ZeeL clocks strong quarter with Rs 275.8 crore profit

    ZeeL clocks strong quarter with Rs 275.8 crore profit

    KOLKATA: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZeeL) has posted operating revenue of Rs 1965.8 crore for the fourth quarter. The leading broadcaster has reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 275.8 crore for the quarter ended March.

    Advertising revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 1123 crore and subscription revenue was at Rs 803.4 crore. The company said the growth in subscription revenue was driven by Zee5.

    Domestic advertising revenue for the quarter grew by 8.9 per cent year-on-year driven by the continued recovery in the macro advertising environment. Overall, domestic advertising revenue declined by 19.7 per cent in the financial year 2020-21 due to the continued impact of the pandemic in H1.

    Programming cost, excluding one-time inventory write-off of Rs. 259.8 crore, declined by 19.2 per cent during the quarter, primarily due to lower accelerated inventory amortisation this quarter; Adjusted programming cost for the year declined by 8.2 per cent due to lower original programming during first quarter.

    Zee5’s revenue and EBITDA for the quarter stood at Rs 107.5 crore, Rs (162.5) crore. The platform’s global monthly active users (MAUs) 72.6 million monthly active users, daily active users (DAUs)6.1 million global DAUs at the end of March. Zee5 viewers spent 156 minutes on average per month.