TV18's news vertical records 20% revenue growth in Q2 FY24

TV18 Broadcast Limited on Wednesday said that its consolidated revenue for the quarter ending September 30 grew 22% YoY to Rs. 1,794 crore, driven by the performance of News business, Movie Studio and Sports vertical.

The revenue from the news segment stood at Rs 357 crore Q2, 20% up from Rs 298 crore in the same period last fiscal.

In Q1 FY24, the TV news network had registered 26% revenue growth as compared to Q1 FY23.

The news business of TV18 turned EBITDA positive in the latest quarter.

In the quarter ending September, the news segment delivered an EBITDA of Rs 10 crore. It had recorded an EBITDA loss of Rs 4 crore in the previous quarter.

The revenue growth on half yearly basis stood at 20%.

“Excluding government initiatives, advertising inventory for the news genre was down by 8%, whereas it was flattish for our network. Monetisation of IP-led events also witnessed a strong revenue traction,” the company said in its regulatory filing.

TV18’s news segment incurred a loss of Rs 9 crore compared to a loss of Rs 12 crore a year before.

In the previous quarter, the news segment reported a net loss of Rs 21 crore.

Digital news segment

The digital news business of TV18 and Network18, which includes brands such as Moneycontrol, Firstpost, cnbctv18.com and news18.com, also saw a 20% growth in revenue.

It posted a revenue of Rs 104 crore in the second quarter of current fiscal, as compared to Rs 87 crore for the same period last fiscal.

Performance of TV news segmemnt

According to the regulatory filing, News18 was the highest reach news network in the country, reaching ~190mn consumers on a weekly basis. The network maintained its leadership position in key markets with CNBC TV18, News18 India, and CNN-News18 being No.1 in their respective genres.

CNN-News18 was the No.1 English news channel with 32.8% market share in the genre.

CNBC TV18 continued to be the undisputed leader in the English Business News genre with 80% overall share and 95%+ viewership share during market hours.

TV18 was also the leader in primetime in the Hindi speaking markets, solidifying its position as the network of choice in the region. The network had leadership in 5 regional markets, including UP/Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, MP/Chhatisgarh. News18 Lokmat, the Marathi language channel, climbed viewership charts to become the second ranked channel, driven by the programming initiatives launched over the past year.

Entertainment segment

Growing 22% YoY, the entertainment segment revenue stood at Rs 1,438 crore in Q2FY24 as compared to Rs 1,176 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The growth of Rs 262 crore in the September quarter revenue includes additional revenue of Rs 233 crore from subscriptions and film production/distribution.

This leaves a growth of Rs 29 crore in revenue from entertainment, sports and JioCinema.

“Excluding Sports and Digital, the network saw a decline in advertising revenue due to higher number of non-fiction shows and events in the base quarter. Absence of these properties also led to a lower content cost for the TV business. Overall advertising environment for TV continues to be soft as consumption demand for FMCG and consumer durables, the primary driver for advertising, continues to languish. Advertising spends by new-age clients remained weak due to the still soft funding environment, posing a challenge in driving growth. Advertising demand for entertainment business was also impacted by multiple cricket series during the quarter which captured a higher share of advertising spends,” the company added.

However, the entertainment segment continued to incur heavy EBITDA losses for the second quarter in a row.

It recorded an EBITDA loss of Rs 208 crore in the September quarter vs an EBITDA loss of Rs 256 crore in the previous quarter.

According to the BSE filing, “Increase in operating costs was primarily driven by higher programming costs in Sports and Digital segments, excluding which the costs were down. The two segments are in an investment phase and had an impact on reported EBITDA as the Company continues to invest in these growth initiatives.”

The company posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 65 crore against a profit of Rs 10 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of TV18, said, “We continue to take giant steps towards building the network of choice for Indian consumers. With India cricket rights, Viacom18 now has the biggest portfolio of sports properties, making it the default choice for sports fans. Our news network has fortified its positions across the markets which bodes well as we head into the festive season followed by elections. Our focus continues to be on providing quality content to audience and as India’s only network with presence across news, entertainment, and sports, we are in a unique position to serve customers across the country and demographic cohorts.”

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