BENGALURU: The clean-up process, and that includes cleaning up of figures, by Reliance has begun. TV18 Broadcast (TV18) posted a massive loss of Rs 154.54 crore in Q1-2015. The loss would have been higher, if not for the company’s minority interest sharing Rs 54.99 crore from the overall loss.
The loss before tax for the quarter ended 30 June 2014 is Rs 214.2 crore after considering one time exceptional adjustments of Rs 223.3crore. The adjustments made by way of exceptional items to the P&L account for Q1-2015, is based on a review of the current and non-current assets of the company. The company says that these adjustments reflect the diminution in the value of certain tangible and intangible assets as well as write-offs and provisions for loans and advances and receivables. These adjustments, however, will not impact future operating profits and cash flow of the business of the company and its subsidiaries, TV18 adds (refer additional notes below)
Note: 100,00,000= 100 Lakhs = 10 million = 1 crore
Let us look at the other numbers reported by TV18 for Q1-2015
TV 18 reported 33.2 per cent higher quarterly revenues on a consolidated basis in Q1-2015 at Rs 527.7 crore as compared to Rs 396.2 crore in Q1-2014, but 6.3 per cent lower q-o-q as compared to the Rs 563.3 crore in Q4-2014.
The company’s profit from ordinary activities before exceptional items and tax in Q1-2015 was Rs 9.1 crore, almost double the Rs 4.8 crore in Q1-2014, but was about a fifth of the Rs 45.3 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.
TV18’s total expenditure at Rs 509.5 (96.6 per cent of TIO) crore in Q1-2015 was 32.9 per cent more than the Rs 383.4 crore (96.8 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2014 and 0.8 per cent lower than the Rs 513.8 crore (91.2 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014.
The company’s programming cost almost doubled (went up by 90.5 per cent) in Q1-2015 at Rs 165.7 per cent as compared to the Rs 87 crore in Q1-2014 and was 6.7 per cent more than the Rs 155.3 crore in Q4-2014. TV18’s employee benefit expense (EBE) in Q1-2015 at Rs 103.9 crores (19.7 per cent of TIO) was 49.1 per cent more than the Rs 69.7 crore (17.6 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2014 and 31.5 per cent more than the Rs 79 crore (14 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014.
TV18 spent Rs 102.2 crore(19.4 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015 towards marketing, distribution and promotional expense, which was 27.1 per cent lower than the Rs 140.2 crore (35.4 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2014 and 32.1 per cent lower than the Rs 150.5 crore (26.7 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014.
TV 18 has two revenue streams – media operations and film production and distribution. In Q1-2015, the media operations segment reported revenue and results of Rs 513.42 crore and Rs 19.37 crore respectively; for Q1-2014, the corresponding figures were Rs 383.49 crore and Rs 22.23 crore; for Q4-2014, the corresponding figures were Rs 550.31 crore and Rs 54.33 crore respectively.
The company’s film production and distribution segment reported revenue of Rs 14.32 crore and an operating loss of Rs 0.95 crore. The corresponding figures for Q1-2014 and Q4-2014 are Rs 18.79 crore and an operating loss of Rs 8.47 crore; revenue of Rs 14.49 crore and an operating loss of Rs 4.59 crore.
TV18’s business news operations saw the successful launch of CNBC Bajar, India’s first Gujarati language channel business channel on July 1, 2014. ETV News saw the successful launch of ETV Gujarati bringing the total bouquet strength to nine channels; ETV Uttar Pradesh, ETV Madhya Pradesh, ETV Rajasthan, ETV Bihar, ETV Urdu, ETV Kannada, ETV Bangla, ETV Haryana. The channels sustained their strong viewership performance aided by the national general elections.
Additional Note: (1) During the quarter ended 30th June, 2014, based on a review of the current and non-current assets, the Group has accounted for (a) obsolescence/impairment in the value of certain tangible and intangible assets to the extent of Rs 122.27 crores and (b) write-off and provisions of non-recoverable and doubtful loans/advances /receivables to the extent of Rs 87.70 crores and the same has been disclosed as Exceptional Items in the consolidated accounts. Further, Exceptional Items also includes Rs 13.31crores towards severance pay and consultancy charge.
(2) Equator Trading Enterprises Private Limited ("Equator") including its subsidiaries Panorama Television Private Limited and Prism TV Private Limited had become wholly owned subsidiary of the Company with effect from 22nd January, 2014. Hence, the consolidated results of the current period include the results of these subsidiary companies. Eenadu Television Private Limited had also become an associate with effect from 22nd January 2014 and its results have been accounted as “Associate” under accounting standard 23 on Accounting for Investments in Associates in Consolidated Financial Statements. To this extent, the results of this period are not comparable with the corresponding previous period.
