Category: GECs

Double digit growth at Star India helps push Fox’s numbers up

BENGALURU: 21st Century Fox reported that international affiliate revenue increased 11 percent driven by rate and subscriber growth at both FNG International and Star India for its cable network programming segment for the quarter ending 30 September 2017. The segment’s international advertising revenue increased 10 percent led by double digit growth at Star India and continued growth at FNG International says a 21st Century Fox release. International OIBDA (Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortisation) contributions were similar to the prior year quarter as higher contributions at Star India were offset by lower contributions at FNG International where higher entertainment and sports programming costs more than offset the higher reported revenues.

21st Century Fox reported total quarterly revenues of $7.002 billion, a $496 million, or 8 percent, increase from the $6.51 billion of revenues, reported in the prior year’s quarter. This increase reflects revenue growth reported across all operating segments, led by higher affiliate revenues at both the cable network programming and television segments and higher content revenues at the filmed entertainment segment.

The company reported quarterly income from continuing operations attributable to 21st Century Fox stockholders of $839 million ($0.45 per share), as compared to $827 million ($0.44 per share) reported in the prior year quarter. Excluding the net income effects of impairment and restructuring charges, Other, net and adjustments to equity earnings of affiliates adjusted quarterly earnings per share from continuing operations attributable to 21st Century Fox stockholders was $0.49 compared to the adjusted result of $0.51 for the same quarter of the prior year.

Commenting on the results, 21st Century Fox executive chairmen Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch said, “The company’s double-digit gains in affiliate revenues demonstrate our strength in the dynamic global market for distinctive video brands and content, across both established distributors and new entrants. We delivered top-line growth at all of our businesses, backed by stand-out storytelling, sports and news, as well as a product focus that will drive greater consumption and compelling opportunities for financial returns on our content investment. Our solid first quarter performance puts us on track to achieve our overall financial and operational objectives for this fiscal year.”

Watch this space for more …

November 9, 2017
Viacom18’s Sudhanshu Vats: Indian media’s growth will be similar to China

MACAU: Even as he said that the growth trajectory of the Indian media space will be similar to that of China, Mumbai-headquartered Viacom 18 Media group CEO Sudhanshu Vats made it clear that both television and digital spaces were complementary to each other having a great future in India.

“Indian media market’s evolution will be very similar to that of China. Where we (India) are today in 2017 is where China was in 2011,” Vats said on Wednesday during the opening keynote on the third and last day of the CASBAA Convention 2017 here in a conversation with media industry veteran Marcel Fenez of Fenez Media.

“In India, the future of television is television and also digital. If you are a content provider or a story teller, you have an advantage,” Vats said, adding that he expected a significant growth surge on the AVoD and SVoD sides of the media business.

Vats went on to highlight the reasons for pushing the company’s digital venture VOOT, stating that not only has the app downloads run into double digit millions, but that about 15-18 per cent of the content on the platform was exclusive even as the Viacom18 team learns from the digital evolutionary processes in the US and China markets. Launched in early 2016, VOOT engages kids as well as adults with 17,000 hours of network content.

“We do a lot of content around digital, which is called VOOT exclusive. India has a big appetite for reality shows and there is a huge amount of curiosity about what happens behind the scenes,” Vats explained. Viacom18 hosts some of India’s biggest reality shows – ‘Fear Factor’ and `Bigg Boss’. He also thinks that India will skip credit cards to e-payment, which can help aim for VOOT SVoD with a paywall.

According to Vats, a Unilever India veteran marketer-turned-media professional (he jokingly mentioned that in his previous company he was famously referred to as the `Laundry Man’ for driving Unilever’s home washing products in India), “Essentially we are storytellers. The big business we are in is content and we need a robust pipeline of content and creative talent. But the challenge is getting talent, and retaining them.”

In this context, he explained later, Viacom18 has started a start-up initiative, encouraging young talent to express themselves in a creative manner as new disruptive ideas in Indian media will not come from within an organisation, but from outside.

(Another reality show running on MTV India is Dropout, a nationwide hunt to find hidden creative talent in ‘dropouts’ to be groomed by industry leaders into entrepreneurs, to solve real-world business problems in a short span of time.)

Terming Viacom18’s 10-year eventful existence as “fantastic” when it had grown 40x, Vats, whose many passions include running marathons world over, said the company’s journey had “now just begun” in India’s media landscape that has been changing dramatically over the years pushed by content, delivery mechanism and technological evolutions. (Incidentally, he completed his daily quota of an hour’s running before getting ready for the morning keynote.)

As part of innovations being undertaken by Viacom18, Vats pointed out that the company plans to set up an engineering hub in India’s Silicon Valley, Bangalore, to help various in-house products.

“The big media companies are consolidating and coming together with telecom companies,” Vats said highlighting the disruptions and convergence happening in the Indian media landscape, “If you had asked me before, I wouldn’t have thought that would happen.”

Batting on the front foot for a digital India, Vats said the country was an “exciting” market. “It’s at the cusp…ready to take off. If you have a five-year horizon, it (India) is where you should be,” he aptly summed.

ALSO READ:

November 9, 2017
How Neeraj Vyas is bringing SAB back to the top of the charts

MUMBAI: Four months ago, Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) rebranded its 10-year-old comedy channel SAB TV under the leadership of veteran executive Neeraj Vyas.

Vyas, who has been with SPNI for more than two decades and was last seen running the shows of music and movie, was additionally entrusted with rejuvenating the flagging SAB by SPNI CEO NP Singh earlier in February 2017.  This followed the departure of its earlier head Anooj Kapoor.

He humbly admits that running SPNI’s second GEC has been a new experience and he has been learning something new every day.“It has been a very exciting journey. It has opened up my eyes to many realities,” says Vyas who was re-designated as senior VP and head Sab TV.

Being charged with library channels earlier, there was little to experiment but he managed to spike Sony Max and Max 2 to numero uno positions in the movie channel vertical.

“It’s a different world altogether. It’s a world where you have to be deeply connected to the viewer; it’s a genre which matches viewers day by day,” he confesses. “The learning never ends.”

To his good fortune, he has a good bunch of creative pros on his team. Amongst the folks who have come on board after he assumed the mantle figure former Star TV producer Neeraj Vaidya as programming head, and Devika Shivdasani and Shantanu Agarwal as creative directors.

His initial goal was to study and evaluate how SAB can be morphed. He chose to delay its re-launch by a couple of months, which finally happened on 13 June, in order to get it right.

What emerged at the time of reboot was a catchy brand identity ‘Haste Raho India’, lively packaging, vibrant visuals – all targeting a younger demographic.

Explains Vyas: “We had got into the rut of catering to a particular set of audience. Families will remain our core but we wanted to look a little younger and appeal to a younger audience.”

Comic Bollywood actor, the ever so popular and young, Varun Dhawan was signed on as the channel’s brand ambassador to help attract this untargeted demographic. A marketing blitz across the network, print, outdoor and social media followed.

Without jeopardising its long running anchor show Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah, a new bunch of comedy series was unveiled: Tenali Rama, Sajjan Re Phir Jhoot Mat Bolo, and Aadat Se Majboor.

“Taarak is not really a show now, it is beyond being a show; it is a part of our viewers lives. It is our sheet anchor. And yes the new shows have added a new energy to the channel,” says Vyas. “We are focusing on storytelling the way we present our shows, market our shows.”

The efforts seem to be bearing fruit, highlights Vyas, step by step, four months down the line.  “We have had some success and some failures along the way,” he reveals. “Most important and critical is that things have started working for us in the past few weeks. In fact, for a couple of months we have had a very loyal base of youth that has started watching us. Be it male – female, urban – semi urban or small towns, between the ages of 15-20 and 21-30 they have started coming to us.”

All Day

CS 15-21years % contribution for SAB

Regions

Pre branding

Post Rebranding

HSM Urban

18

25

Source: BARC; All Day; Pre branding wk 24-42’16 & Post Rebranding wk 24-42’17

The average ratings of the channel before rebranding was 193 million impressions, which has increased to 212 million impressions, post rebranding.

All Day

SAB TV – Impression in Million

Regions

Pre branding

Post Rebranding

HSM Urban

193

212

source: BARC; CS15+;HSM Urban; All Day Impression in Millions; Pre branding wk 20-23’17 Avg & Post Rebranding wk 24-27’17 Avg

And not just that, even the reach has been on an ascent. At 30 per cent today, it is about 20 per cent higher than the stats before the revamp. “I am happy as everything we set out to do has worked. Perception has changed for the better. Viewer feedback is that they love the new SAB.”

Advertisers too have taken note especially youth centric brands such as Mahindra TUV Three Double O, Patanjali, PC Jewellers, Syska, Vivo, Colgate and Macho have open their wallets and released campaigns on SAB.  “Reach is one factor to get brands but it’s also a huge quality change that is attracting them. A lot of youth brands which never considered SAB have all come to the channel,” points out Vyas.

He is quite kicked up about SAB’s upcoming show – Partners —Trouble Ho Gayi Double – which heralds the arrival of veteran comedian Johnny Lever on TV after a 10-year hiatus. The show written and produced by Paritosh Painter also stars comics Kiku Sharda, Vipul Roy, Kishwer Merchant, Shweta Gulati, Ashwini Kalsekar and old timer Asrani. Says Vyas: “We have many exciting thoughts and ideas. Watch out for the way we market the shows and there are many more launches in these 3 months.”

With the weekday programming yielding results, Vyas would now like to crack the weekend. “Most GECs get a lot of reach on the weekends. I would like that for SAB too. We are figuring out what can be the SAB TV weekend but that is work in progress. I don’t think spending money is the only way to get the eyeballs. In the long run only great programming will.”

That kind of attitude will serve him well as he and his team gear up to take SAB to the next level.

November 8, 2017
Kumkum Bhagya and spinoff help Zee TV to second place in across genres

BENGALURU: Over the past few weeks, Zee TV or its network sibling Zee Anmol have been ranked second and/or third in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly lists for top 10 channels across genre (All India (U+R) : 2+ Individuals). In week 42 of 2017, it was Sony Pictures Network India’s (SPN) Hindi Movies channel Sony Max with the help of the rerun of Baahubali 2 that was placed second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres (across genres list). In week 43 of 2017 (Saturday, 21 October 2017 to Friday, 27 October 2017) – the week after India’s biggest festival season of Diwali, it is Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited’s (Zeel) flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV that has climbed back to second position in BARC’s across genres list. As in the past, the channel was once again supported by the Balaji Telefilms produced family drama soap Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya to attain the second place in the across genres list for week 43 of 2017. Both the soaps were amongst the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes HSM (U+R) during primetime (1800 – 2330 hrs) : 2+ Individuals The pole position of the across genres list belongs to the Sun Networks flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV (except during the annual Indian Premier League). Three channels from SPN, two channels each from or associated with Zeel, Star India and Network 18 and one channel from the Sun Network comprised the top 10 channels across genres for week 43 of 2017. From the genres perspective, seven Hindi GEC channels and one channel each from the Hindi Movies, Tamil GEC and Telugu GEC made up BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres for week 43 of 2017. Two flagship Hindi GEC channels of two networks – Colors and Star Plus returned to the top 10 channels list across genres after a short hiatus. As mentioned above Sun TV was at first rank in week 43 of 2017 with 1,059.914 million weekly impressions followed by Zee TV with 700.976 million weekly impressions. Zeel’s FTA Hindi GEC Zee Anmol was at third place with 681.964 million weekly impressions. Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat was at fourth place in week 43 of 2017 with 668.004 million weekly impressions. Network 18’s (Viacom 18) flagship Hindi GEC Colors was at fifth place with 617.659 million weekly impressions, followed by SPN’s women focused Hindi GEC Sony Pal with 594.487 million weekly impressions at sixth place. Sony Max was seventh in week 43 of 2017 with 584.651 million weekly impressions. The Network 18 associated Telugu GEC ETV Telugu was at eighth place with 536.339 million weekly impressions followed by Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC with 529.028 million weekly impressions at ninth place. SPN’s flagship Hindi GEC aided by the Amitabh Bahchan anchored Kaun Banega Crorepati was at tenth place in week 43 of 2017 with 519.420 million weekly impressions.

November 3, 2017
Sony Networks’ Indian channels cross 1 bn subs globally

MUMBAI: It has crossed the billion subscriber mark making it a time to pop the champagne at Sony Pictures Networks India. The latest Q2 2018 financials (up to 30 September 2017) announced by Sony Corp reveals that there was a spike in its global subscriber base from 793.2 million to 1.206 billion, courtesy its Indian bunch of channels.

The reason: the additional distribution that its latest acquisition – Ten Sports Network channels – garnered in various global markets. Additionally, it has been further pushing its existing channels on newer platforms globally. Sony Pictures Television’s media networks vertical operates 101 channels with 189 feeds in Asia, Australia and North America and has a total of 1.94 billion subscribers across the world (as of 30 September 2017).

The 1.206 billion subs for India originating channels means that they account for more than 50 per cent of the total for the megacorp.

Indian rival Zee Entertainment claims 1.3 billion viewers for its 35 domestic channels and 39 international channels which are available in 173 countries.

November 3, 2017
Ten Sports, Spiderman sequel help drive up Sony revenue in second quarter

BENGALURU: Sony Pictures Network India’s (SPN) acquisition of Ten Sports Network seems to be working well for parent Sony Corporation’s (Sony) financial numbers for the quarter ended 30 September 2017 (Q2-18, current quarter).

In its earnings release, Sony has said that the pictures segment sales increased 27 percent year-on-year (a 17 percent increase on a US dollar basis) to 244 billion yen. The company says that asignificant increase in sales on a US dollar basis was primarily due to higher sales in Motion Pictures and Media Networks. Motion Pictures sales increased significantly due to the strong worldwide theatrical performance of Spider-Man: Homecoming. Media Networks sales increased significantly primarily due to higher advertising and subscription revenues from Ten Sports Network, a sports network in India acquired by SPE in February 2017, and from SPE’s other networks in India.

Pictures segment operating income increased 4.5 billion yen year-on-year to 7.7 billion yen. The company says that this increase in operating income was primarily due to the above-mentioned increase in sales, partially offset by higher programming and marketing expenses for Media Networks.

It may be noted that Sony’s Pictures segment, of which SPN is a part, was Sony’s third largest segment in terms of revenue for Q2-18. This segment has reported an operating profit for the current quarter, but an operating loss for the half year ended 30 September 2017 (H1-18). All of Sony’s segments have reported growth in revenue for the current quarter.

Sony’s revenue and income

Sony’s sales and operating revenue increased by 22.1 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year (year-on-year) to 2,062.5 billion yen. This significant increase was primarily due to the impact of foreign exchange rates and an increase in game & network services (GNS) segment sales. On a constant currency basis, sales increased 15 percent.

The operating income of Sony’s pictures segment increased 4.5 billion yen year-on-year to 7.7 billion yen. The company says that this increase in operating income was primarily due to the above-mentioned increase in the segment’s sales, partially offset by higher programming and marketing expenses for Media Networks.

Let us see how the other segments of Sony have fared

Mobile Communications (MC) segment sales was 172.0 billion yen, essentially flat year-on-year (a 3 percent decrease on a constant currency basis). MC segment had an operating loss of 2.5 billion yen was recorded, compared to operating income of 3.7 billion yen recorded in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. The company says that this deterioration was primarily due to a change in the geographic mix of smartphone sales, an increase in the price of key components, as well as the negative impact of the appreciation of the US dollar, primarily reflecting the high ratio of US dollar-denominated costs, partially offset by reductions in operating costs and marketing expenses and forex fluctuations.

The GNS segment sales increased 35.4 percent year-on-year (a 25 percent increase on a constant currency basis) to 433.2 billion yen. The company says that this significant increase was primarily due to an increase in PlayStation4 (PS4) software sales including sales through the network, the impact of foreign exchange rates, as well as an increase in PS4 hardware sales. GNS segment’s operating income increased 35.8 billion yen year-on-year to 54.8 billion yen.

Imaging Products & Solutions (IPS) segment sales increased 15.8 percent year-on-year (a 7 percent increase on a constant currency basis) to 156.7 billion yen. The company says that this significant increase in sales was mainly due to the impact of foreign exchange rates as well as the absence in the current quarter of the impact from the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. IPS segment’s operating income increased 4.0 billion yen year-on-year to 18.9 billion yen.

Home Entertainment & Sound (HES) segment’s sales increased 28.1 percent year-on-year (a 17 percent increase on a constant currency basis) to 300.9 billion yen. The company says that this significant increase was primarily due to an improvement in the product mix of televisions reflecting a shift to high value-added models, as well as the impact of foreign exchange rates. HES segment’s operating income increased 6.8 billion yen year-on-year to 24.4 billion yen.

Semiconductors segment sales increased 17.9 percent year-on-year (a 10 percent increase on a constant currency basis) to 228.4 billion yen. The company says that this increase was primarily due to a significant increase in unit sales of image sensors for mobile products, as well as the absence of the impact of a decrease in image sensor production due to the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year, partially offset by a significant decrease in sales of camera modules, a business which was downsized. Semiconductors segment Operating income of 49.4 billion yen was recorded, compared to an operating loss of 4.2 billion yen recorded in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

Music segment sales increased 37.5 percent year-on-year (a 32 percent increase on a constant currency basis) to 206.6 billion yen. The company says that this significant increase in sales was mainly due to higher visual media and platform sales and higher recorded music sales. Visual media and platform sales increased significantly due to the continued strong performance of

Fate/Grand Order, a game application for mobile devices. Recorded music sales increased significantly primarily due to a continued increase in digital streaming revenues. Music segment’s operating income increased 16.0 billion yen year-on-year to 32.5 billion yen.

Financial services segment revenue increased 7.2 percent year-on-year to 279.2 billion yen primarily due to an increase in revenue at Sony Life. Revenue at Sony Life increased 6.6 percent year-on-year to 246.0 billion yen mainly due to higher insurance premiums revenue reflecting an increase in the policy amount in force, as well as an improvement in investment performance in the separate account. This improvement in investment performance was mainly due to favorable financial market conditions says the company. Operating income increased 3 billion yen year-on-year to 36.6 billion yen, primarily due to a decline in the loss ratio for automobile insurance at Sony Assurance and the above-mentioned increase in insurance premiums revenue at Sony Life.

November 2, 2017
ZEEL’s Amit Goenka: Target 3 billion audiences in the next 5 years

MUMBAI: To conquer half the world – that is the aim of the 25-year old Zee Network. Barely weeks into the channel refresh of Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) channels, the conglomerate has a new brand philosophy – ‘Extraordinary Together’.

ZEEL CEO Punit Goenka admits that for the last 25 years it has been choosing the time slot for people to watch television. “But in next 25 years we have to listen to the consumers and where he wants to consume, in which format and through which medium. That is the biggest change we see going forward,” he adds.

The company has reached 1.3 billion viewers globally with the presence in over 173 countries since 23 years. The foray into producing international content is recent and today Zee produces content in nine different languages. “We plan to produce more global content but 80 per cent will stay Indian content. We plan to target three billion audiences in the next five years,” says ZEEL International broadcast business CEO Amit Goenka.

In India, ZEEL will soon enter the Malayalam market. Along with this, the network plans to launch its consolidated digital platform Z5 soon.

Punit Goenka is optimistic that the company’s content will differentiate it from others. It will span Hindi and 11 regional languages, and a large film library in multiple languages. Though TV content will be on Z5, there will be original ones too.
He also said and expressed his wish to take theatre to extreme heights both in India and abroad.

Goenka clarified that ZEEL isn’t abandoning its earlier philosophy of Vasudeva Kutumbakam, but it is rather encompassing it all together.

October 31, 2017
Chrome Study: Colors, Amitabh most liked GEC channel, anchor among working individuals

BENGALURU: Colors is the most liked Hindi GEC channel among working individuals and KBC’s Amitabh Bachchan is the most liked anchor, according to a survey by Chrome Data & Analytics (Chrome) covering 1,957 working individuals in the HSM market.

The most preferred genre – in order of preference – 92 percent were hooked to GECs; 56 percent preferred movies; 52 percent were addicted to music; 44 percent followed news; 19 percent liked infotainment; 17 percent preferred sports; 12 percent preferred the kids’ genre and 5 percent preferred the lifestyle genre.

In terms of channels – in order of preference – 70 percent preferred Colors; 55 percent Sony Entertainment Television (SET); 53 percent preferred Star Plus; 41 percent preferred &TV; 37 percent preferred Zee TV and 31 percent preferred SAB TV.

In terms of favourite channel – for 38 percent Colors was a favourite channel while Star Plus was a favourite channel for 21 percent; 20 percent found Sony TV as their favourite channel; Zee TV was a favourite for 10 percent; &TV was a favourite channel for 7 percent and 4 percent of the respondents found SAB TV to be their favourite channel.

The Chrome study respondent universe was 22 percent in the age group of 15 to 20 years; 44 percent in the age group of 21 to 30 years; 27 percent in the age group of 31 to 50 and 7 percent that were 51 years old or more. 58 percent of the respondents were male and 42 percent were female.

Please refer to the six charts below for the favourite programmes and characters on favourite channels

Writers note: Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data for top 10 channels that is freely accessible in the public domain indicates that it is Zee TV and its sibling and free to air channel Zee Anmol that have been topping ratings in the Hindi GEC markets over the past few weeks. Correspondingly, Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya generally and consistently are amongst the top 5 GEC programmes in BARC’s weekly lists. In the case of reality television there is limited amount of BARC data available in the public domain. It may be noted that BARC data covers the entire HSM urban and rural market, while Chrome data is limited to working individuals in the HSM market.

October 30, 2017
Zeel ad revenue & profit up in Q2 despite GST impact

BENGALURU: The Subhash Chandra led Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) reported a 2.9 percent increase in advertising revenue for the quarter ended 30 September 2017 (Q2-18, current quarter) as compared to the corresponding year ago quarter (y-o-y). Zeel says in a press release that despite the adverse impact of GST on advertising, domestic advertising grew by 5.8 percent y-o-y, on a comparable basis (excluding sports, RBNL and IWPL) to Rs 9028 million.

Zeel’s net profit after tax (PAT) for the period more than doubled (2.48 times) y-o-y in the current quarter to Rs 5908 million as compared to Rs 2384 million due the slump sale of its sports broadcasting business that resulted in a net gain of Rs 1346.1 million for the current quarter. Zeel’s subscription revenue declined 14 percent y-o-y to Rs 5014.1 million in the current quarter as compared to Rs 5833.4 million. However, adjusted for the sale of sports business, domestic subscription revenue grew by 7.2 percent to Rs. 4043 million. International subscription revenue stood at Rs 971 million. Other sales and services revenue in the current quarter was lower y-o-y at Rs 939 million as compared to Rs 1529.4 million.

Overall, Zeel’s revenue increased 2.7 percent y-o-y in Q2-18 to Rs 17,851.8 million on higher other income as compared to Rs 17,386.7 million in Q2-17. Other income in the current quarter more than quadrupled y-o-y to Rs 2031.3 million as compared to Rs 432.3 million. EBIDTA in the current quarter was almost flat y-o-y (up 0.4 percent) at Rs 4912 million as compared to Rs 4892 million.

Company speak

Zeel chairman Subhash Chandra said, “We are now a 25 years old organisation and it is with great satisfaction and pride that I look back at this journey and the numerous milestones we have achieved. Starting as India’s first private television channel, we have grown into a truly global entertainment content company with a worldwide footprint and a strong presence across all forms of entertainment. Indian M&E industry has grown by leaps and bounds but it is just the beginning. I am confident that we will continue to shape the entertainment industry, much like we have done over the last two and a half decades.”

Zeel managing director and CEO Punit Goenka commented, “At Zeel, it has been an exciting 25 years during which we significantly increased our viewership and expanded our regional as well as global presence. This was achieved while delivering a strong financial performance. It has been possible because of our ability to evolve our content offerings in line with changing consumer preferences. Another step in this evolution would be the launch of our new digital product, ‘Z5’, in the second half of this financial year. It will offer an unrivalled content catalogue appealing to all demographics and bring unique viewing experience to the consumer.”

“We are satisfied with our performance against the backdrop of tough macro-economic environment during the quarter. Our advertisers were negatively impacted during transition to GST which led to a temporary pull-back on their ad spends. Post the decline in the first half of the quarter, the growth recovered strongly and is back on track. Despite the adversity, our domestic ad revenue grew at 5.8 percent on a comparable basis,” said Goenka.

“The domestic subscription growth for the quarter was at 7.2 percent. As against the early closure of deals last year, content deals with distributors are taking slightly longer due to litigations regarding the TRAI tariff regulation. However, our full year outlook for subscription growth remains unaltered. Despite the loss of advertising revenue and elevated expenses during the quarter, we have been able to deliver a healthy margin of 31 percent,” assured Goenka.

“The acquisition of 9X Media follows our stated strategy of expanding into regional markets and niche genres. 9X Media’s six music channels enjoy leading market shares in their respective segments and will further strengthen our entertainment offering to the consumer. The channels will benefit immensely from our network’s strength to achieve higher growth potential and cost synergies,” revealed Goenka.

Let us look at the other numbers reported by Zeel

The company’s total expenditure in the current quarter declined 9.6 percent y-o-y to Rs 10,909 million from Rs 12,062 million. Employee Benefit Expense in Q2-18 increased 18.4 percent y-o-y to Rs1814 million from Rs 1533 million. Operating costs in the current quarter declined 24.7 percent y-o-y to Rs 5789 million from Rs 7688 million. Advertising and Publicity expenses increased 22.3 percent y-o-y in Q2-18 to Rs 1410 million from Rs 1153 million in Q2-18. Other expenses increased 12.3 percent in the current quarter to Rs 1896 million from Rs 1688 million in Q2-17.

Also Read:

Zee Content Hub originals slate for DISCOP SA: First Indian-African drama, lifestyle and factual programmes offered

Zee TV new logo unveiled; refreshed digital platform Zee5 launch soon

ZEEL’s Punit Misra: Our new logo signifies aspiration of Indian middle class

October 24, 2017
Zee Content Hub originals slate for DISCOP SA: First Indian-African drama, lifestyle and factual programmes offered

MUMBAI: Global Content Hub by Zee – the syndication division of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) — announced its new, original programmes for licensing at the upcoming DISCOP market, in Johannesburg on 25-27 October.

Highlights of this year’s portfolio include the new Indian/African co-production series Khwaabon Ke Darmiyaan, filmed in Dubai and the Ivory Coast. Other featured shows on offer are two new dramas and a lifestyle programme, as well as Zee’s complete rich catalogue of over 2400,000 hours’ programs in all genres.

Khwaabon Ke Darmiyaan is an original and ground-breaking African-Indian co-production between Zee TV and RTI from Ivory Coast. Filmed in both Africa and the Middle East, the 13-episod ic one-hour drama features well-known African actor Ahmed Souane from the Ivory Coast, who co-stars as the protagonist tycoon’s best friend.

Renowned actor Javed Sheikh portrays the UAE real estate tycoon, Ikram Malik, and the story follows his endeavor to launch a massive real estate project in the UAE. The series is fast-paced, sophisticated and engrossing and began its broadcast in December 2016, garnering the highest rating recorded for any show in the UAE for 2016 (Average 12.1 TVR); and went on to become the top-rated show among South Asians for its entire 2-month run through February 2017. Khwaabon Ke Darmiyaan is the second Indian drama series ever filmed in Dubai, the first was Parwaaz also produced by Zee.

Also on offer for the first time are two popular dramas and one factual programme: Woh Apna Sa — an Indian drama series about a troubled marriage and potential love triangle; Waaris (Heir) an Indian drama-thriller series; and English-language, transformational reality programme Big Fat Truth about healthy living.

ZEEL chief business officer – international ad sales, global syndication and production Sunita Uchil said, “Zee’s Global Content Hub is also highlighting two fantastic dramas for the first time as well as an English-language healthy lifestyle programme."

October 19, 2017

All Day	SAB TV – Impression in Million
Regions	Pre branding	Post Rebranding
HSM Urban	193	212