 "December quarter results: Analysts expect tepid numbers")
TV18 Broadcast Ltd on Tuesday reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 55.83 crore for the third quarter that ended on December 31, due to investments made on the sports and digital segment.
The company had posted a net profit of Rs 37.81 crore in the October-December period of the preceding fiscal, TV18 Broadcast said in a regulatory filing.
Its consolidated revenue from operations was also down 5.17 per cent to Rs 1,676.19 crore, compared to Rs 1,767.71 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.
"Consolidated revenue for the quarter declined 5 per cent YoY to Rs 1,676 crore, primarily due to lower Movie Studio revenue," said an earning statement from TV18 Broadcast.
TV18 Broadcast's total expenses were up 5.2 per cent to Rs 1,907.28 crore in the December quarter.
However, its total income, which also includes other income, in the December quarter was marginally up at Rs 1,841.32 crore.
"News network maintained strong market positions across genres and continued to deliver industry-leading revenue growth. It had an all-India viewership share of 10.6 per cent with leadership in key markets," it said.
The share of its TV network increased by 30 bps QoQ to 10.8 per cent driven by the strong performance of Hindi GEC and Movie channels.
While its OTT platform, JioCinema, also continued to strengthen its position "as one of the leading digital destinations for sports and entertainment content in India," the earning statement said.
During the quarter, revenue from its TV News segment was up 23 per cent with strong growth in advertising revenue across clusters.
"The business delivered a strong turnaround in profitability, with 12 per cent EBITDA margin for the quarter," it said.
TV18 Broadcast owns 20 TV news channels which includes CNBC TV18, CNN NEWS18, News18 India.
While, in the entertainment, TV18 Broadcast's operating revenue declined 12 per cent "primarily due to lower Movie and Sports segments revenues," it added.
"TV Entertainment advertising revenue was flat despite having a lower number of hours of non-fiction content compared to last year," it said adding "Industry saw green shoots of growth" with a 6 per cent YoY increase in TV impressions, however, due to the continued softness in overall advertising environment, it did not translate into commensurate advertising growth.
Moreover, the EBITDA of TV Entertainment was impacted due to operating loss from Sports and Digital as Viacom18 is making investment in these segments, it added.
It owns 42 TV Channels which includes MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Colors, one OTT platform Jio Cinema and Movie Studio platform Viacom18 Studios.
TV18 Chairman Adil Zainulbhai said: "All our businesses are gathering momentum at the right time as the economic outlook continues to improve against the backdrop of a resilient performance by the Indian economy.
"As we have stated in the past, we believe that the Indian media sector has a long runway for growth and our strong positions across segments gives us a perfect launchpad to capture this opportunity," he said.
TV18 Broadcast, a subsidiary of Network 18 Group, had announced a Scheme of arrangement during the quarter for merger of TV18 and e-Eighteen.com (Moneycontrol) with Network18 to simplify the holding structure and create India's largest platform-agnostic news media conglomerate.
Shares of TV18 Broadcast Ltd on Tuesday settled at Rs 60.66 on BSE, down 3.50 per cent from the previous close.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
