MUMBAI: Sun TV Network’s net profit was up 15.88 per cent in the quarter ended 31 December 2020, at Rs 445.54 crore as against Rs 384 crore in the corresponding period in 2019.

Consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 994.14 crore versus Rs 768.69 in the preceding quarter.

It reported a total income of Rs 1059.39 crore during the third quarter, up from Rs 823.07 crores during the period ended 30 September 2020. Sales rose 17.26 per cent to Rs 994.14 crore as against Rs 847.81 crore during the same quarter in the previous fiscal.

The network posted EPS of Rs 11.30 in Q3, as compared to Rs 8.50 in the preceding quarter, and Rs 9.76 for the period ended 31 December 2019.

Subscription revenues for the quarter were up by three per cent at Rs 424.05 crore as against Rs 411.85 crores for the corresponding quarter last fiscal. The EBITDA grew by four per cent at Rs 600.68 crores for the current quarter as against Rs 580.36 crores during the previous quarter ended 31 December 2019. Q3 profit before tax jumped 19 per cent to Rs 592.62 crores as against Rs 498.46 crores in the year ago period.

EBITDA margins were down sharply by 940bp year-on-year basis to 61.8 per cent as other expenses saw a big spike of 165 per cent, as well as higher programming costs i.e. cost of revenues by 48 per cent as GEC content resumed fully during the quarter.

After the announcement of its Q3 financials, shares of Sun TV Network were trading at Rs 549, as compared to the previous close of Rs 552.95. The total number of shares traded during the day was 235967 in over 5582 trades.

Sun TV Network is one of the largest television broadcasters in India. It operates satellite television Channels across five languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bangla, airs FM radio stations across India and owns the SunRisers Hyderabad Cricket franchise of the Indian Premier League and the digital OTT platform Sun NXT.