TV18's consolidated revenue up 13% in Q2FY23; net profit down 96%

TV18 Broadcast Ltd on Tuesday reported a 95.55% decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 10.28 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2022.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 231.40 crore for the July-September period of the previous fiscal, TV18 Broadcast said in a regulatory filing.

However, its consolidated revenue from operations rose by 12.65% to Rs 1,473.43 crore compared to Rs 1,307.90 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

TV18 Broadcast's total expenses were at Rs 1,485.95 crore, up 34.59% from Rs 1,104 crore earlier.

On standalone basis, the company reported a loss of Rs 12 crore in Q2FY23 against Rs 31 crore profit a year ago. In previous quarter, i.e. Q1, the company had recorded a loss of Rs 5 crore.

The standalone results involves TV18’s news businesses including 20 channels and CNBCTV18.com.

The revenue from news stood at Rs 298 crore in the quarter ending September 30, down 1% from Rs 301 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

“Q2 revenue was down 1% YoY, primarily due to de-growth in advertising revenue. News ad inventory declined by ~10% at industry level and the drop was even higher for our network as we continued to optimise inventory on key channels. However, the impact on revenue was much lower as the scale-up of events-led monetisation partially offset the loss of display advertising,” the company said.

The expenses were up 22% on account of investment in distribution, content and marketing, the company said in the regulatory filing.

In Q2FY23, the company’s operational expenses stood at Rs 302 crore versus Rs 247 crore a year ago.

“Operating costs for the quarter increased by 22%, primarily driven by content cost and distribution initiatives. Our investments have started showing positive results with a visible improvement in viewership metrics of our key channels over the last 2 quarters,” the company said.

“However, because of a subdued advertising environment, increase in viewership did not translate into commensurate revenue. We believe that this investment is critical to build a strong foundation for growth which will help our portfolio fortify competitive positions across markets and drive strong revenue traction going forward,” it added.

TV18 Chairman Adil Zainulbhai said, "The first half of the fiscal has been challenging for most sectors. However, we believe that this phase should only be a minor bump in the long runway for growth. Our News and Entertainment portfolio already has some of the country's leader brands and our endeavour is to push for leadership across segments."

"Despite a challenging growth environment, we continue to make investments which will help us create a strong foundation for long-term and will hold us in good stead as growth returns," he said.

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