BENGALURU: New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) reported flat (down 1 per cent) consolidated Total Income from Operations (TIO, revenue) for the year ended 31 March 2016 (FY-16, current year) as compared to the previous year. The company reported TIO of Rs 565.76 crore in the current year as compared to Rs 571.28 crore in FY-15.

Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:

(a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.

(b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

NDTV’s reported 3.8 percent year-on year (y-o-y) growth in TIO for the quarter ended 31 March 2016 (Q4-16, current quarter) at Rs 169.74 crore as compared to Rs 163.45 crore and 14.4 percent quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) growth as compared to Rs 148.41 crore for Q3-2016.

The company reported a higher loss for FY-16 at Rs 54.82 crore as compared to a loss of Rs 44.03 crore in FY-15. Loss in Q4-16 was however lower at Rs 0.77 crore as compared to a loss of Rs 17.21 crore in Q4-15 and a loss of Rs 12.54 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.

NDTV reported an operating loss (EBIDTA) in FY-16 at Rs 22.45 crore as compared to an operating profit of Rs 32.93 crore (5.8 percent margin) in the previous year. EBIDTA in Q4-16 was Rs 8.25 crore (4.9 percent margin), 61.6 percent lower than the EBIDTA of Rs 21.50 crore (13.2 percent margin). The company reported an operating loss in Q3-16 at Rs 4.45 crore.

Segment numbers

NDTV’s Television Media and related operations (Television) segment reported almost flat (0.8 percent higher) revenue of Rs 559.13 crore as compared to Rs 554.63 crore in FY-15. The segment reported 7.7 percent y-o-y growth in revenue for Q1-16 at Rs 169.27 crore as compared to Rs 157.09 crore and a 14.4 percent q-o-q growth as compared to Rs 147.96 crore in Q3-16.

Television segment reported an operating loss of 11.26 crore in FY-16 as compared to an operating profit of Rs 31.92 crore in FY-15. The segment reported an operating profit of 13.14 crore in Q4-16, 49 percent lower than Rs 25.78 crore in Q4-15. Television segments had reported an operating loss of Rs 3.44 crore in Q3-16.

NDTV’s Retail/eCommerce (eCommerce) segment reported 17.5 percent decline in revenue at Rs 16.14 crore in FY-16 as compared to Rs 19.57 crore in the previous fiscal. eCommerce segment’s revenue in Q4-16 declined 62.2 percent y-o-y to Rs 2.57 crore  as compared to Rs 6.80 crore and declined 33.2 percent q-o-q from Rs 3.85 crore. The segment’s reported a higher operating loss in FY-16 at Rs 36.10 crore as compared to an operating loss of Rs 23.67 crore in FY-15. The segment’s operating loss in Q4-16 at Rs 10.30 crore was higher than the operating loss of Rs 9.99 crore in Q1-15 and higher than the operating loss of Rs 6.50 crore in Q4-15.

Let us look at the other numbers reported by NDTV

Total Expenditure (TE) in FY-16 increased 8.1 percent to Rs 624.47 crore (110.4 percent of TIO) as compared to Rs 577.89 crore (101.2 percent of TIO) in FY-15. TE in the current quarter increased 12.2 percent y-o-y to Rs 169.87 crore (100.1 percent of IO) as compared to Rs 151.34 crore (92.6 percent of TIO) and grew 6.2 percent q-o-q from Rs 159.89 crore (107.7 percent of TIO) in Q3-2016.

NDTV’s consolidated Production Expense (PE) increased 1.2 percent in FY-16 to Rs 121.72 crore (21.5 percent of TIO) as compared to Rs 120.25 crore (21 percent of TIO) in FY-15. PE increased 22.3 percent y-o-y to Rs 41.09 crore (24.2 percent of TIO) from Rs 33.32 crore (20.4 percent of TIO) and grew 33.1 percent q-o-q from Rs 30.42 crore (20.5 percent of TIO).

The company’s Marketing, distribution and promotional expense (Marketing expense) in the current year increased 20.7 percent to Rs 128.63 (22.7 percent of TIO) as compared to Rs 106.57 crore (18.7 percent of TIO) in FY-15. Marketing expense in the current quarter increased 30.4 percent y-o-y to Rs Rs 32.52 crore (19.2 percent of TIO) as compared to Rs 24.93 crore (15.3 percent of TIO) but was 10.9 percent lower q-o-q from Rs 36.50 crore (24.6 percent of TIO).

NDTV’s Employee Benefit Expense (EBE) in FY-16 increased 9.7 percent to Rs 201.36 crore (35.6 percent of TIO) from Rs 183.55 crore (32.1 percent of TIO) in FY-15. EBE in Q4-16 increased 17.2 percent y-o-y to Rs 52.25 crore ( 30.8 percent of TIO)  from Rs 44.57 crore ( 27.3 percent of TIO) and increased 3.2 percent q-o-q from Rs 50.72 crore (34.2 percent of TIO).

Operating and administration expenses (Admin expenses) in FY-16 increased 8.8 percent to Rs 132.76 crore (23.5 percent of TIO) from Rs 121.98 crore (21.4 percent of TIO) in FY-15. Admin expense in Q4-16 increased 13.9 percent y-o-y to Rs 36.72 crore (21.6 percent of TIO) from Rs 32.25 crore (19.7 percent of TIO) and grew 6.1 percent q-o-q from Rs 34.60 crore (23.3 percent of TIO).

Finance Costs in the current year declined 3.4 percent to Rs 20.76 crore (3.7 percent of TIO) from Rs 21.48 crore (3.8 percent of TIO). Finance cost in the current quarter declined 12.2 percent y-o-y to Rs 4.66 crore (2.7 percent of TIO) from Rs  5.31 crore (3.2 percent of TIO) and declined 11.9 percent q-o-q from Rs 5.49 crore (3.6 percent of TIO).

Company speak

The NDTV board has decided to consider re-structuring / de-merger and separate listing of NDTV Convergence (ndtv.com) to unlock shareholder value. Ndtv.com is one of India’s most successful Internet businesses with a global reach and more than 65 million (6.5 crore) unique visitors a month. NDTV Convergence has been consistently profitable.

NDVT’s eCommerce business

Gadgets360.com – achieved a Gross Merchandize Value (GMV) of Rs 27 crores while maintaining a positive contribution margin per unit as well as total gross margin. The portal is now bigger than next 5 Indian tech sites combined.

CarAndBike.com – was the exclusive launch partner for 4 cars in the span of the last 6 months of 2015-16. The fledgling startup has already on-boarded 8 OEM’s for direct sale of cars and bikes covering 40 percent of the new car market pan India. The site includes innovative features such as the consumer-to-consumer auction engine for used cars as well as regional language content and a complete host of allied services pertaining to loans and insurance.

BandBaajaa.com – launched on 6th October 2015, which aims to be a one-stop shop for wedding planning, ideas, inspiration, shopping and execution has already partnered with 2,100 vendors across 15 cities in 14 categories like venues, photographers, makeup-artists, etc.

Mojarto.com – launched as an online platform aggregating artists, galleries, artisans and designers from across the sub-continent into a marketplace.