BENGALURU: Zee Media Corporation Limited (ZMCL) reported 1.3 per cent growth in Total Income from Operations (TIO) to Rs 135.26 crore in Q1-2016 (quarter ended 30 June, 2015) as compared to Rs 133.46 crore in Q1-2015, but 3.3 per cent lower than the Rs 139.88 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.
The growth was due to a 15 per cent growth in subscription revenue in the current quarter at Rs 28.67 crore (21.2 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 24.93 crore (18.7 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015 partially offset by the 5.1 per cent decline in advertising revenue at Rs 96.75 crore (71.5 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2016 as compared to the Rs 101.92 crore (76.4 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015.
Subscription revenue in the immediate trailing quarter was however 5.1 per cent higher at Rs 30.21 crore and advertising revenue was 1.9 per cent higher at Rs 98.69 crore than the corresponding Q1-2016 revenue.
Notes: (1) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore
(2) The figures in this report are consolidated figures unless stated otherwise
Other Sales and services revenue in the current quarter at Rs 9.84 crore (7.3 per cent of TIO) was 48.9 per cent more than the Rs 6.61 crore (4.9 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015, but 10.4 per cent lower than the Rs 10.98 crore (7.8 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter.
Television business advertising and subscription numbers
Television advertising revenue in the current quarter was almost flat (declined 0.4 per cent) at Rs 79.72 crore as compared to the Rs 80.01 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter. Advertising revenue for new channels more than doubled (went up 2.1 times) to Rs 5.68 crore in Q1-2016 as compared to the Rs 2.71 crore in Q1-2015, while advertising revenue from the older existing channels declined 4.2 per cent to Rs 74.05 crore as compared to the Rs 77.30 crore in Q1-2015.
Television subscription revenue in Q1-2016 increased 23 per cent to Rs 25.84 crore as compared to the Rs 21.01 crore in Q1-2015.
Let us look at the other numbers reported by ZMCL
ZMCL reported a lower loss of Rs 7.1 crore in Q1-2016 versus a loss of Rs 17.52 crore in Q1-2015 and loss of Rs 7.18 crore in Q4-2015.
Total expense (TE) in Q1-2016 at Rs 133.01 crore was 7.5 per cent lower than the Rs 143.80 crore in Q1-2015 and 3.3 per cent lower than the Rs 137.48 crore in Q4-2015.
ZMCL’s employee benefit expense (EBE) in Q1-2016 at Rs 42.11 crore was 5.4 per cent more than the Rs 39.55 crore in Q1-2015 and was seven per cent more than Rs 39.34 crore in Q4-2015.
In Q1-2016, ZMCL’s operational cost at 20.79 was 36.9 per cent lower than the Rs 32.96 crore in Q1-2015 and 25.6 per cent less than the Rs 27.94 crore in Q4-2015.
ZMCL News Cluster group CEO Bhaskar Das said, “We are exploring new areas of innovation, both in form and content, in such a way that media is again established as the fourth pillar of democracy. We seek to improve our understanding and increase our collaboration with the change agents who are creating a positive impact on the development of our country. This I am hopeful will help us break the clutter and create meaningful content differentiation in the highly fragmented news TV genre.”
ZMCL CEO Ashish Kirpal Pandit added, ”As the company sets itself apart from the me-too content environment, we are hopeful that new-age advertisers will find immense value in partnering with us for pushing their communication through our differentiated media vehicles. While we are looking at investing to upgrade our content, we remain focused on maintaining a robust bottomline. We are also trying to gauge the full impact of BARC ratings, and how it is going to play out in the future.”
