ZEEL Profit Up 6% In Q3, FY 2011

The numbers include financial results of Taj TV Ltd and Regional General Entertainment Channel business.

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | January 17, 2011

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has reported its third quarter fiscal 2011 consolidated revenue of Rs 8,249 million representing a 55% growth over the corresponding period in the previous fiscal. The consolidated operating profit (EBITDA) for the quarter stood at Rs 2,242 million and profit after tax before extraordinary items at Rs 1,554 million as compared to 1,464 million in the third quarter of last year. The EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 27.2%.

The numbers as published are after consolidating the financials of Taj TV Limited (Taj). The Board of Directors in its meeting held on 14^th January, has taken on record the unaudited consolidated financial results of ZEEL and its subsidiaries for the quarter ended December 31, 2010.

The numbers of the third quarter fiscal 2011 include financial results of Regional General Entertainment Channel business (R-GEC) acquired from Zee News Limited (ZNL). The R-GEC business was acquired w.e.f. January 1, 2010. 9X business undertaking of 9X Media Pvt Ltd and ETC Networks Ltd were also merged with the Company w.e.f. March 31, 2010. Post the merger of ETC Networks Ltd with ZEEL, the entire education business undertaking of ZEEL was demerged into a new listed company, Zee Learn Limited w.e.f. April 01, 2010. Hence, the numbers for this quarter are not comparable with those of the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Subhash Chandra, Chairman, stated, “We are pleased to see continuing buoyancy in media spends in India. A rapid adoption of satellite based television services via DTH proves that consumers are opting for better digital technology. This augurs well for the television industry, both for content owners and for DTH industry. While DTH has shown the way in leading the adoption of digital technology, cable has not been able to match the pace. During the nine months ended December 2010, India added 9.6 million digital homes on DTH alone, and the DTH subscriber base has gone upto 30.6 million homes.”

Commenting on the third quarter results of the Company, Chandra added “While the competition has intensified in the Indian television segment, our performance remained steady across genres and across languages. Our investments in sports genre have continued during the quarter.”

Punit Goenka, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, ZEEL, commented, “The performance of Zee Network has been satisfactory on all parameters, despite intensified competition in the Hindi entertainment segment. During the quarter, our advertising revenues have grown by 62%, and we have seen healthy growth in cable revenues. DTH revenues also continued to grow, reflecting a growing adoption of digital DTH services.”

Speaking on the regional television landscape, Goenka said, “We continue to see robust growth in the regional segment. While we continued to lead the Marathi genre strongly with 33 of the top 50 shows, we managed to gain market share in the Bangla genre from an average of 271 GRPs in the second quarter of this fiscal to an average of 383 GRPs during the current quarter.”

Elaborating on the sports business, Goenka added, “We had a sports heavy calendar during the quarter including several soccer properties and multiple cricket properties showcased on our channels. It included the cricket matches played by South Africa vs Pakistan, Sri Lanka vs West Indies and India vs South Africa tests. This has resulted in an increase in our operating cost on account of Sports.”

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