Dish TV India hit an upper circuit of 5% at Rs 11.48 after consolidated net profit stood at Rs 74.54 crore in Q1 June 2020 compared with net loss of Rs 35.44 crore in Q1 June 2019.
Consolidated net sales slipped 9.8% to Rs 835.58 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Rs 926.30 crore in Q1 June 2019. Profit before tax (PBT) surged 231.30% to Rs 102.65 crore in Q1 June 2020 as against Rs 30.98 crore in Q1 June 2019. The Q1 earnings were announced after trading hours yesterday, 2 September 2020.
Subscription revenues fell 4.2% to Rs 791.50 crore in Q1 FY20 over Q1 FY19. EBITDA was at Rs 551.40 crore in Q1 June 2020, registering a growth of 1.5% quarter-on-quarter and 2.9% year-on-year. EBITDA margin was at 66%, recording an increase of 350 bps QoQ and 810 bps YoY.
Dish TV India continued to deleverage during the quarter by meeting its debt obligations. The closing debt at the end of the first quarter was Rs 1,474.20 crore from Rs 1,817.50 crore in the preceding quarter.
Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Dish TV India was reasonably well placed to make way through the challenges. Dish TV India's business was running throughout the countrywide lockdown primarily due to the consistent investment in digital technology and resources over the years. Dish TV India has developed an in-house app to enable its call-centre agents to switch to work-from-home. The step was extremely critical to ensure that subscribers don't miss out on their television programmes and that the revenue and retention function of call-centres was not hampered.
Overall, the teleservice provider continued to reach out to new subscribers while staying connected with its existing subscriber base. Some demonstrated an erratic recharge behaviour due to the struggles linked to the current situation. Due to such issues, Dish TV India devised and extended pay-later schemes that gave a 3-day credit to eligible subscribers, deducting the amount from their next recharge. Re-connection charges were also waived off during the initial period of the lockdown.
Unlike the initial phase of the lockdown, revenues during the quarter were impacted due to a higher overall churn. In addition, the YoY (year-on-year) decline in revenues was also due to a high base effect considering the plenty of cricket and general elections related coverage on television during the first quarter of last year.
Commenting on the Q1 results, Anil Dua, the group chief executive officer (CEO) of Dish TV India, has said: "We intensified our online subscriber engagement campaigns during the quarter while also continuing to keep costs under check in these uncertain times. I am glad that we could achieve a 2.9% YoY growth in EBITDA despite a challenging environment. I am thankful to every employee at Dish TV India for rising to the occasion and delivering their best. I would also like to thank our business partners, distributors and service associates for seamlessly adopting and implementing the new COVID-19 driven SOPs in the shortest possible time."
The COVID-19 linked disruption is certain to show up in the future performance of companies across sectors. However, with the basic importance of television in most households, the going should be easier for the TV distribution industry including for Dish TV India.
Jawahar Goel, the company managing director (CMD) of Dish TV India, stated that: "With extreme unpredictability all around, we are more cautious than ever before. Expecting lack of consumer confidence, we are ready with leaner more value driven packs that should come in handy to take-on the free platform as well. We however expect the consumer sentiment to be more upbeat with the commencement of the cricketing season at the end of the second quarter and remain at elevated levels all through the traditionally strong third quarter."
Dish TV India is engaged in the business of direct to home (DTH) and teleport services. The company's segments include dth and teleport service, and infra support services. It is also engaged in the business of broadcasting of other satellite telecommunications activities.
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