Zee Media's net profit comes down in Q3 FY'14

The company posted a net profit of Rs 59.2 million in Q3 FY14 against Rs 113.7 million in the corresponding quarter of last year

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | January 27, 2014

Zee Media Corporation (ZMCL), erstwhile Zee News Limited, has reported third quarter fiscal 2014 consolidated revenues of Rs 916.8 million. Consolidated EBITDA stood at Rs 143 million.

Net Profit before Tax stood at Rs 109.5 million and Operating Expenditure at Rs 773.8 million. The company reported PAT of Rs 59.2 million against Rs 113.7 million in the corresponding quarter of last year.

The Subscription revenues continued to grow strongly by 21.6 per cent at Rs 270 million in the third quarter, indicating a strong demand for the network's channels. The Subscription performance was also significantly high on YTD basis growing at 17.5 per cent at Rs 729 million.

The Operating revenues for the quarter grew by 6.8 per cent at Rs 916.8 million. On YTD basis the growth was 12.3 per cent at Rs 2,523.9 million.

The company has made substantial expenditures in new channels like Zee Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh and Zee Marudhara in Rajasthan. It also has incurred preparation expenses for launch of Zee Kalinga in Odisha and relaunch of Maurya TV in Bihar/Jharkhand market.

Zee Media had acquired 37.87 per cent equity stake in Maurya TV, an entity engaged in the business of broadcasting of a regional news & current affairs television channel 'Maurya TV' in Bihar & Jharkhand. Maurya TV was relaunched as Zee Purvaiya.

To launch Zee Kalinga in Odisha market, Zee Media used the used the licence of Zee 24 Ghantalu, its Telugu news channel, after exiting from Andhra Pradesh market by divesting its entire stake in a wholly owned subsidiary, 24 Ghantalu News Ltd, at book value.

Subhash Chandra, Non-executive Chairman of the board, said, “ZMCL has always stayed ahead in anticipating issues affecting the company performance in the long term. We have moved towards a more integrated approach to the news consumer by taking forward the process of bringing the news television, print and internet together. Our continued expansion in strategic growth markets is another indication of how we are looking to leverage the growing economy.”

Bhaskar Das, Group CEO, News Cluster, said, “In order to fulfil our commitment of providing quality content for our regional viewer, we have recently introduced locally produced programming in Zee Marudhara. Additionally, we would be launching Zee Kalinga servicing the Odisha market and have rebranded Maurya TV, which we acquired, as Zee Purvaiya. Our new channels launched in the current financial year have had significant growth in viewership with Zee Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh becoming number two channel in a few months of its launch, and Zee Marudhara increasing its GTVTs by over four times in the quarter as opposed to the previous one. New Media growth numbers too have been encouraging with zeenews.com registering an increase of 28.2 per cent in visits.”

Alok Agrawal, Whole-time Director, said, “It has been an action-packed quarter for us here at ZMCL. We have restaged Zee News channel with refreshed programming and look and feel. The channel now is more contemporary and youth-oriented. The channel, post restaging, has increased its weekly TVTs by about 18 per cent in the last four weeks of the quarter. Our other national channel, Zee Business, also has performed exceedingly well by developing non-stock market hours viewership and has almost two and a half times viewership of all the English Business News channels put together. Our network-wide initiative, Bharat Bhagya Vidhaata, also has had a great response especially from new age consumers with #BBV reaching 19.9 million.”

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