KOLKATA: An unstable regulatory environment compounded by an unprecedented global pandemic has stymied growth in FY21 for the already-ailing broadcasting sector. In some ways, the second half of the year could be better for the industry, with advertising coming back. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) has also pinned its hopes on the last two quarters, especially Q4.
Zeel CEO and MD Punit Goenka said in an earnings call that the company has seen significant improvement, but acknowledged that the ad pricing has not returned to pre-Covid level yet. Goenka estimated that it would normalise in Q3 and start seeing growth in Q4.
“Q3 and Q4 base anyways are soft but we expect that in Q3, we will only be able to maintain what we had received last year; very insignificant, moderate growth if at all possible. But Q4 certainly will have heavy growth over the last year,” he remarked.
While Zeel has been able to stay ahead of the pack in some markets in terms of viewership, it has fallen behind in regional spaces like Marathi and Bengali. Goenka is of the view that a new and improved content pipeline could be a cure for this.
“Obviously, the current pipeline seems jaded to the viewers and therefore they have chosen to go and consume more on the competition. But the good part is we have not lost reach on the channel as yet, therefore we will have to revamp the content there,” he said.
He did go on to add that Zeel is already seeing a recovery in the Bengali market and it will clock faster growth in the next couple of months. For the Marathi market, the company expects a recovery in the next one or two quarters. However, Goenka is sanguine about making a comeback with their audience.
“Certainly the new line-up that competitors have introduced post the lockdown has refreshed content for them and the consumers may have preferred that over the legacy shows that we have been serving. As you know, there is always an up and down in this kind of a business so we are confident that we will regain our viewership back,” he said.
In terms of domestic subscription growth too, FY21 would be difficult for the company. It has cited instability of NTO 2.0 as a key reason because it has frozen the pricing for the year. But going forward, it hopes double-digit to low-teens is quite possible as the directive should be out of the way, either implemented or disposed of.
“What has happened is when we implemented NTO 1.0, we had a complete blueprint of how we were going to take up pricing and how product launches would happen over a period of time and how we will drive our subscription revenue. In fact, in the third and fourth quarter of last year we launched four new channels. So that was also a part of it. Now because of NTO 2.0, all the plans of our bouquet as well as taking up the pricing is on hold and that is the reason why subscription revenue for this year would be impacted on the domestic broadcast side,” Zeel FPA and investors relations, corporate strategy head Bijal Shah commented.
In the long term, the network sees a two-fold opportunity in the domestic broadcast sector. There are around 100 million homes in the country that do not have TV yet, which could be a significant opportunity for a deeper subscriber base. On the pricing side, it thinks that the ARPUs are pretty low. ZeeL has already planned price increases in some of the markets. Moreover, the company aims to launch more products.
On EBITDA margin, Zeel hopes to see an improvement every quarter. Once FY22 proves to be a normal year without any disruption on the advertising side or subscription side, the margin trajectory should gradually return to normal.
