With advertising revenues coming off by about 7 per cent, Zee Entertainment has turned in a disappointing set of numbers for the March 2009 quarter. Although subscription sales were up, total revenues fell to Rs 513.74 crore. As a result, although costs stayed more or less flat, the operating profit fell to Rs 122 crore.
The Zee management says it does not want to spend on programming simply to chase rating points and has taken three programmes off the air because they weren’t doing well. It claims to have seen an increase in the channel share in the last quarter and currently 32 of it shows are in the top100.
Zee plans to focus on trimming costs —including selling and distribution expenses, which were up sharply last year. The ZeeNext channel, which was posting huge losses, it says, is in ‘suspension mode’. While Zee’s revenues grew around 18.5 per cent last year to Rs 2,173 crore,the growth this year could be lower.