MUMBAI: Zee expects to obtain the landing rights in China soon, six years after applying for it.

Having already run a profitable syndication and sales business in China, the Subhash Chandra-promoted media company aims to cater to the audience in the Mandarin country with its entertainment content in the toughest media market in the world.

"We haven?t officially got the landing rights yet. It is work in progress. We expect to get the approval soon," a Zee spokesperson said.

Zee has been pursuing the landing rights in China ever since it applied in 2006.

According to a PTI report, a Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson has stated that "Zee TV has got the landing rights in China," while briefing reporters on the talks between India?s Foreign Minister S M Krishna and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jeichi.

Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel), India?s leading broadcasting network overseas, was looking at a 9 per cent growth from its international business this fiscal and would see income up from advertising, syndication and other operations while subscription revenue would stay almost flat.

Zeel has paced up its localisation strategy in global markets, which keeps it far ahead of its rivals. Zee Aflam, for instance, has seen reasonable growth and reached break-even status within three years. Other localisation experiments are already on in Malaysia, Russia and, to a limited extent, in France in partnership with Canal.

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) has posted a third-quarter consolidated net profit of Rs 1.38 billion, down 11.5 per cent over the year-ago period, as advertising revenue slipped and could not quite make up for the gains in subscription.

Ad revenue slid 10.1 per cent, impacted by a softening in spends and a loss in market share. "Overall, advertising revenues on non-sports business have declined, though marginally. This is reflective of the overall weakness in advertising spends combined with some market share loss," the company said.

Zeel posted a consolidated operating income of Rs 7.55 billion, down 8.5 per cent from the earlier year. The company said that as the revenue in the Q3 FY?11 included Rs 700 million as one time fees for pre-mature termination of rights for All India Football Federation (AIFF), the results were not comparable.

For the three-month period ended 31 December, Zeel?s operating profit (Ebitda) was at Rs 2.16 billion, down marginally (3.6 per cent), over the year-ago period.

Ebitda margin for the quarter was 28.6 per cent, which has gone up from 27.2 per cent in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Zeel said that excluding sports business, the Ebitda margin stood at a healthy 34 per cent.

Zeel chairman Subhash Chandra said, "While the world economy goes through another round of upheaval, the Indian economy continues to grow, even though at a lower pace. The slowdown brings its own set of challenges in all spheres of business activity. Advertising trend continues to be slower than expected. However, the television economy continues to grow on the back of higher subscriber growth and increasing digitisation."

Zeel?s advertising revenues for the quarter stood at Rs 3.95 billion, showing a decline of 10.1 per cent over the earlier year. Zee said that it had more cricket properties in sports which resulted in better advertising revenues.

Zeel MD and CEO Punit Goenka said, "Zee Entertainment?s wide portfolio of television channels had some gains and some losses in market shares during the quarter. We are confident that we would regain the market share losses through our planned content lineup and continue to grow our business profitability in a sustained manner. During the quarter, we have been able to maintain healthy operating margins, partly due to lower sports losses and partly due to better cost efficiency measures.

Advertising spends are flat sequentially, and the overall trends also remain subdued.

Zeel made substantial gains in subscription income. The total subscription revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 3.26 billion, registering an increase of 15.7 per cent over the corresponding quarter last fiscal. "While subscription revenues have recorded a bigger increase, the reported subscription revenues reflect a growth of only 15.7 per cent y-o-y, because of the change in accounting treatment of domestic subscription revenues, which are now being reported net of expenses," Zeel explained.

During the current quarter, domestic subscription revenue stood at Rs 2.22 billion, up 13.85 per cent over the preceding quarter.

International subscription income was at Rs 1.04 billion, up 2.7 per cent compared to the earlier year and 8.24 per cent over the trailing quarter. It obviously gained from the rupee depreciation.

Meanwhile, other sales and services include syndication sales, play out & transmission services, facility usage income among others.During the third quarter, other sales and services stood at Rs 332 million. The company had recorded revenue of Rs 1.03 billion under this head during the corresponding period last fiscal, including a non-recurring one time fees of Rs 700 million.

Overall, programming and operating cost in the quarter was Rs 3.4 billion as compared to Rs 4.15 billion in the corresponding period last fiscal, a reduction of 17.6 per cent. The major reason for the reduction is that the corresponding quarter last fiscal had more sports properties as compared to this quarter.

Employee cost increased by 6.5 per cent over the corresponding period last fiscal. Selling & other expenses in the quarter were at Rs 1.24 billion, as compared to Rs 1.17 billion in the corresponding period last fiscal. Total cost incurred by the company in third-quarter was Rs 5.39 billion, showing a reduction of 10.3 per cent over the corresponding period last fiscal.

MUMBAI: The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced the winners of the 39th International Emmy Awards at a Gala event held at the New York Hilton, hosted by actor Jason Priestley.

Winners span six countries: Chile (first time) Belgium, Canada, Portugal, Sweden and The United Kingdom.

Lady Gaga surprised the audience of over 1,000 international entertainment and media executives by opening the show and presenting The International Emmy Founders Award to Nigel Lythgoe, the executive producer of ‘American Idol‘ and the co-creator and executive producer of ‘So You Think You Can Dance‘.

The International Emmy Directorate Award was presented to Subhash Chandra by actress Archie Panjabi ‘The Good Wife‘ and Citigroup Chairman Richard Parsons.

The 10 International Emmy Award Winning programmes and performances are:

Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne (Arts Programming), Benidorm Bastards (Comedy), Life with Murder (Documentary), Con que Suenas (Children and Young People), Lacos de Sangre (Telenovela), Millennium (TV Movie/Mini-Series), The World‘s Strictest Parents (Non-Scripted Entertainment), Accused (Drama Series), Julie Walters (Best Performance by an Actress) and Christopher Eccleston (Best Performance by an Actor). Complete winners information follows this release.

Academy president, CEO Bruce Paisner said, "We congratulate tonight‘s winners for their outstanding achievements as they enter into Emmy history. The Academy is proud to be the preeminent global showcase for excellence in television programming and performances."

MUMBAI: Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra has announced the creation of a $250 million content development, production, co-production and acquisition fund for Veria Living, the network devoted to showcasing wellness programming and related content across multiple media platforms.

Chandra said that the establishment of the $250 million fund is yet another step in Zee Groups? strategic five-year plan to further expand Veria Living?s presence in the US and beyond as the go-to-source for all things health and wellness.

?We are firmly committed to growing the Veria brand across television, Internet, mobile and OTT platforms. By focusing on original content development and production we?re not only looking to build a broad US audience for Veria Living, but also setting the table for the expansion of the brand globally over the next couple of years,? he said.

Veria Living claims of offering the world?s largest line-up of first-run, original programming ? connecting viewers in a contemporary and accessible manner to the benefits and joys of living a healthy lifestyle.

The New York-headquartered Veria Living television network is available throughout the US on Dish Network, Verizon FiOS and Frontier Communications subscribers.

Veria.com, the website, complements the network by extending the Veria Living philosophy through online recipes and nutrition, holistic health tips, body-mind conditioning and all-natural products.

The news comes on the heels of Veria?s recent announcement regarding its new primetime programming line-up, launch of its new comprehensive website (www.Veria.com) and rebranding as Veria Living scheduled for a January 2012 premiere. The network also recently unveiled a new lifecycle logo combining Eastern influence with Western design (sunshine yellow and tangerine orange) and its new tagline ? ?Go Well?.

Veria Living and Zee TV suite of Indian language channels are managed in the US by Asia TV USA and overseen by its CEO Suresh Bala Iyer. Iyer said, ?We not only want to appeal to our core 35-44 Adult and 25-54 Women demos, but to all Americans who are looking to lead healthier lives. Veria Living helps them to achieve this by passionately advocating for quality and vitality of life by following proven wellness and nutritional activities. This fund will go a long way towards helping us to achieve our goals while creating the most entertaining content possible that fits our mission.?

Chandra founded Veria as way to promote wellness to the West, was in New York to receive the 2011 International Emmy Directorate Award.

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) has posted a healthy 26.7 per cent jump in its second-quarter net profit as revenue stayed flat in a weak advertising environment.

A 4.2 per cent drop in ad revenue has been cushioned by a 2.3 per cent cut in costs, helping the company to beat the profitability forecast made by market analysts.

Zeel?s consolidated net profit for the three-month period ended 30 September stood at Rs 1.6 billion compared to Rs 1.26 billion a year ago. Analysts had forecast the company to earn a net profit of Rs 1.40 billion.

Operating revenue stood at Rs 7.18 billion, marginally up from Rs 7.12 billion. However, the company clarified that the operating revenues and expenditure for Q2 are not comparable to the earlier year because of the "change in accounting treatment of domestic subscription revenues, which are now being reported net of expenses."

Zeel chairman Subhash Chandra said, "The Indian economy continues to grow at a good pace but high inflation and the resultant tight money policy of RBI is taking its toll. While the economic situation in India is far better than most other countries, market sentiment continues to be cautious. This caution has affected advertising spends on television, which has witnessed some deceleration. The good part is that the television economy continues to grow robustly on the back of subscriber growth and digitisation." 

The consolidated operating profit (Ebitda) for the quarter was up 10.1 per cent to Rs 2.07 billion, from Rs 1.88 billion in the year-ago period. Operating profit margin stood at 28.9 per cent.

Finance expenses during the quarter were Rs 56 million, up 1085 per cent year-on-year.

During the quarter, Zeel?s advertising revenue saw a decline of 4.2 per cent to Rs 3.95 billion compared to the earlier year. Zeel clarified that the decline is due to the fact that the corresponding quarter last fiscal had some India-centric cricket properties. Excluding sports, advertising revenues have shown an increase.

The company, however, feels that the ad environment will stay weak this fiscal.

Subscription revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 2.91 billion, registering an increase of 6.3 per cent over the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. During the current quarter, domestic subscription revenue stood at Rs 1.95 billion, while international subscription income was at Rs 959 million, down 3 per cent. Domestic cable accounted for 12.8 per cent of the revenue, while domestic DTH accounted for 14.3 per cent.

Overall, programming and operating cost in the quarter was Rs 3.22 billion as against Rs 3.46 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, a reduction of 6.8 per cent.

Employee cost increased by 7 per cent; selling and other expenses in the quarter were at Rs 1.2 billion, as against Rs 1.13 billion in the earlier year. Total costs incurred by the company in this quarter stood at Rs 5.11 billion, showing a reduction of 2.3 per cent.

The numbers as published are after consolidating the financials of Taj TV Limited (Taj). It also includes financial results of regional general entertainment channel business (R-GEC) acquired from Zee News Limited (ZNL) and 9X business undertaking of 9X Media.

Zeel?s sports business posted a revenue of Rs 881 million, while costs incurred in this quarter was Rs 1.11 billion.

Zeel MD and CEO Punit Goenka said, "Zee Entertainment has a wide portfolio of television channels and we have seen some gains and some losses in our market shares during the quarter. We are confident that we would continue to grow our business profitability in a sustained manner. During the quarter, we have seen a healthy increase in our operating margins, partly due to lower sports losses and partly due to better cost efficiency measures. Though advertising spends are better sequentially, overall trends remain subdued and FY?2012 does look to be a year of tepid growth in advertising spends on television. Our strategy during the last few years has been to create a formidable entertainment enterprise and invest in the business in a focused disciplined way."

The flagship channel, Zee TV, and Zee Marathi have lost market shares to competition.

"We are working towards correcting the loss in market shares in some of our businesses," said Goenka.

Shares of Zeel rose 1.1 per cent to close Monday at Rs 113.3 on the BSE.