BENGALURU: The Subhash Chandra led content and broadcast player Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) reported a 9.8 per cent hike in PAT to Rs 977.50 crore (20 per cent of Total Income from Operations or TIO) in FY-2015 (year ended 31 March, 2015, current year) from Rs 892.08 crore (20.2 per cent of TIO) in FY-2014.

The company’s advertising revenue increased 11.8 per cent in the current year to Rs 2660.30 crore (54.5 per cent of TIO) from Rs 2380.05 crore (53.8 per cent of TIO) in the previous year and consequently, Zeel TIO increased 10.4 per cent in FY-2015 to Rs 4883.65 crore from Rs 4421.70 crore in FY-2014.

Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore

The other revenue streams that add to Zeel TIO are subscription revenues and other sales and services (other) revenues. Zeel’s subscription revenues were almost flat (down 0.5 per cent) in FY-2015 at Rs 1793.48 crore (36.7 per cent of TIO) from Rs 1802.22 crore (40.8 per cent of TIO) in the previous year. Other revenue increased by 79.5 per cent to Rs 429.87 crore (8.8 per cent of TIO) in FY-2015 as compared to the Rs 239.43 crore (5.4 per cent of TIO).

Let us look at the other numbers reported by Zeel for FTY-2015 and Q4-2015:

Zeel PAT in Q4-2015 improved 6.1 per cent to Rs 230.77 crore (17.1 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 217.58 crore (18.8 per cent of TIO) in the corresponding year ago quarter, but declined 25.2 per cent as compared to the Rs 308.61 crore (22.6 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter.

Zeel TIO in Q4-2015 at Rs 1347.05 crore was 16.2 per cent more than the Rs 1158.81 crore in Q4-2014, but declined 1.2 per cent as compared to the Rs 1363.72 crore in Q3-2015.

Advertising revenue in Q4-2015 increased 15 per cent to Rs 669.66 crore (49.7 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 582.36 crore (50.3 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014, but declined 9.8 per cent as compared to the Rs 743.60 crore (54.5 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2015.

Subscription revenue in Q4-2015 increased 10.2 per cent to Rs 510.77 crore (39.9 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014 and increased 14.5 per cent from Rs 446.13 crore (32.7 per cent of TIO) in the previous quarter.

Zeel says that during Q4-2015, domestic subscription revenues stood at Rs 417.5 crore, while for FY-2015, it stood at Rs 1424 crore. Adjusting for the difference due to accounting changes necessitated by change in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) content aggregator regulation like-to-like growth for the full year FY-2015 is in low teens.

Further, during Q4-2015, international subscription revenues stood at Rs 93.3 crore. Due to change in arrangement with various operators across international territories, the reporting of subscription revenue for the current year has undergone a change and hence previous year figures are not comparable with that of current period. For the full year FY-2015, like-to-like growth in rupee terms was in mid-single digit.

‘Other’ revenue in Q4-2015 increased 47.6 per cent to Rs 166.62 crore (12.4 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 112.91 crore (9.7 per cent of TIO) in the corresponding year ago quarter, but declined 4.8 per cent as compared to the Rs 174.99 crore (12.8 per cent of TIO) in the previous quarter.

The company’s Total Expenses (TE) in FY-2015 increased 13.2 per cent to Rs 3697.27 crore (75.7 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 3267.54 crore (73.9 per cent of TIO) in FY-2014. TE in Q4-2015 increased 26.3 per cent to Rs 1093.70 crore (81.2 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 866.15 crore (74.7 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014 and increased by 6.5 per cent as compared to the Rs 1027.36 crore (75.3 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2015

Zeel’s operation cost in FY-2015 at Rs 2139.34 crore (43.8 per cent of TIO) was 3.4 per cent more than the Rs 2068.79 crore (46.8 per cent of TIO) in FY-2014. Operation cost in Q4-2015 increased 13.9 per cent to Rs 620.09 crore (46 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 544.42 crore (47 per cent of TIO) in the corresponding quarter of last year but was 4.9 per cent lower than the Rs 645.57 crore (47.3 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2015.

The company’s Employee Benefits Expense (EBE) in FY-2015 increased 15.2 per cent to Rs 449.83 crore (9.2 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 390.52 crore (8.8 per cent of TIO) in the previous year. EBE in Q4-2015 at Rs 120.89 crore (9 per cent of TIO) was 21.1 per cent more than the Rs 99.84 crore (8.6 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014 and 10.6 per cent more than the Rs 109.27 crore (8 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2015.

Zeel’s advertisement and publicity expenses (ad expenses) in FY-2015 increased 50.1 per cent to Rs 372.2 crore (7.6 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 247.93 crore (5.6 per cent of TIO) in FY-2014. Ad expenses in Q4-2015 more than doubled (2.23 times) to Rs 132.46 crore (9.8 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 59.42 crore (5.2 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014 and was 54.2 per cent more than the Rs 85.92 crore (6.3 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2015.

Company speak

Zeel chairman Subhash Chandra said, “With a stable government at the centre, the Indian economy has shown some signs for optimism and is expected to see a positive growth trajectory. New initiatives like the Make in India campaign and other reform measures have boosted confidence among investors in the successful and sustainable growth of the economy. Introduction of GST in the coming future should be a positive for the media sector. With the aforementioned developments in the economic environment we hope that the media industry will see improvement in the revenues.”

Chandra added, “Our performance in this quarter is reflective of the investments we are making to further enhance of market position. We continue to pursue opportunities in existing and new markets that will yield long-term growth. Since, financially we are in a sound position, we are confident that we will benefit from exploring such growth opportunities in the coming year.”

Zeel managing director and CEO Puneet Goenka said, “This quarter, our performance has been satisfactory. As expected, advertising spends increased during the quarter backed by consistent performance of our channels. We also witnessed a sustainable growth in our subscription revenues in this period and with the implementation of digitization in Phase III and IV we expect to see our subscription revenues grow further in the future.”