BENGALURU: The Subhash Chandra led content and broadcast player Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) reported total income from operations of Rs 1,101.28 crore for Q2-2014, up 15.5 per cent as compared to the Rs 953.50 crore for the corresponding quarter of FY-2013 and 13.2 per cent higher than the Rs 973.25 crore for the preceding quarter Q1-2014. PAT for Q2-2014 at Rs 236.31 crore was 26 per cent higher than the Rs 186.7 crore for Q2-2013 and 5.5 per cent more than the Rs 223.9 crore for Q1-2014.
Let’s take a look at Zeel’s Q2-2014 performance
Advertising revenue for Q2-2014 at Rs 583.3 crore was 10.5 per cent higher than the Rs 528.1 crore for Q2-2013 and 10 per cent more than the Rs 530.1 crore for Q1-2014. Zeel claims that without sports, its ad revenues would have grown by more than 20 per cent in Q2-2014 as compared to Q2-2013.
Zeel’s subscription revenue jumped 16 per cent in Q2-2014 to Rs 458.1 crore from Rs 394.95 crore in Q2-2013 and was higher by eight per cent as compared to the Rs 424.1 crore for Q1-2014.
The company’s total expense for Q2-2014 at Rs 799.9 crore was 7.3 per cent more than the Rs 745.4 crore for Q2-2013, and 15.9 per cent more than the Rs 690.4 crore during Q1-2014. Operating cost which formed a major chunk of expense for Q2-2014 at Rs 504.1 crore was 5.2 per cent more than the Rs 479 crore for Q2-2013, and substantially higher by 22.7 per cent as compared to the Rs 410.8 crore for Q1-2014.
Selling and other expense for Q2-2014 at Rs 187.5 crore was 24 per cent more than the Rs 169.5 crore for Q2-2014.
Zeel chairman Subhash Chandra said, “The M&E industry growth is marginally impacted by the overall slowdown of the economy. The television sector, in particular, continues to grow on the back of better subscriber growth linked to increasing digitisation. There was an apprehension about the trends in advertising spends given the overall weakness in the economy, but the television media industry has continued to grow in double digits during the second quarter. Zeel has outpaced the industry advertising revenue growth once again.”
Zeel managing director and CEO Punit Goenka said, “Sports performance for the quarter has been good, but due to a heavy sports calendar and rupee depreciation, the business is expected to be in losses for some time to come.”
“Beginning next quarter, we will see a reduction in advertising inventory across the network in line with TRAI regulations. We are in the process of negotiations with advertisers and are confident that this will not have any major impact on revenue monetization. Digitisation will lead to fragmentation of audiences. At Zeel, we believe that this creates a huge opportunity to create new products for specific segments, which will allow us to monetise this opportunity, both from advertising and subscription standpoint. Therefore, we continue to innovate in terms of our format and content,” added Goenka.
