TV18 Broadcast Limited today announced its results for the quarter and financial year ended March 31, 2022.
TV18 reported its highest ever full-year consolidated EBITDA at Rs. 1,039cr. The Q4 ’22 EBITDA stood at Rs. 254 cr. FY22 consolidated margin at 18.8% (+80bpsYoY), 4 years of continuous improvement. News business delivered a sharp improvement in annual profitability.
The news margins expanded by 500bps to 21% with strong revenue growth and continued cost controls providing operating leverage. Entertainment business maintained strong margins despite a step-up in investments. Entertainment business maintained margins at strong 18%+, despite a substantial 26% YoY increase in operating costs. FY22 clocked 23 percent increase in revenues driven by a strong growth in advertising. The subscription revenue was flattish as NTO 2.0 implementation remained mired in legal challenges. Despite the impact of Rs. 132cr higher tax provision, PAT was up by 24 percent YOY and stood at Rs 926 Crore.
Q4 ’22 witnessed 11% growth in operating revenue driven by movies business and ad revenue growth. News revenue grew by 10% YoY and margin was at 21.4%. Entertainment business revenue grew 11% YoY and margin was at 16%.
The network launched 3 dedicated sports TV channels launched in Apr’22. During the year, Viacom18 acquired television and digital rights to some of the marquee sports properties like NBA and FIFA World Cup, two of the most watched sports in the world. It also acquired the rights of major footballing leagues – La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy) and Ligue 1 (France), Cinch Premiership (Scotland), and other sporting events like ATP Masters Tennis, WTA, top BWF World Tour events like All England Open Badminton Championship, World Boxing Championship, Abu Dhabi T10 Cricket, and Road Safety World Cricket Series, among others. The network launched 3 sports channels (including 1 FTA channel) last month under the umbrella brand, Sports18, giving the fans a dedicated destination for watching their favorite sports content on TV, in addition to streaming on digital platform, Voot.
“Viacom18 believes that sports, especially live sports, will help strengthen the value proposition of the network to consumers and will complement the current entertainment offering. The network will continue to add more events and properties to its catalogue and will strive to be India’s most-coveted sports network by providing fans easy access to a comprehensive bouquet of international and premium sports content,” official statement from the company read.
On 27th April, Viacom18 announced a strategic partnership with Reliance and Bodhi Tree Systems (a platform of James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems and Uday Shankar). As part of this partnership, Rs. 15,145 crores will be infused by Bodhi Tree Systems (Rs. 13,500cr) and Reliance (Rs. 1,645cr through Reliance Projects & Property Management Services Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance). In addition, the JioCinema OTT app (currently owned by RPPMSL) will be transferred to Viacom18. Paramount Global (formerly known as ViacomCBS), a leading global media and entertainment company comprised of content studios, TV networks and streaming services, reaffirmed its commitment to the partnership as a strategic partner in Viacom18. It will continue to supply Viacom 18 its premium global content as well as launch Paramount+ in India in partnership with Viacom18. This partnership between Reliance, Paramount Global and Bodhi Tree Systems, will enable Viacom18 to transform into one of the largest TV and digital streaming companies in India.
Commenting on the results, Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of TV18, said, said, “FY22 was a remarkable year, not only from the perspective of financial performance, but in terms of building a strong foundation on which the business can continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Media presents a long-term growth opportunity enabled by improving infrastructure, rising disposable incomes and increasing content quality. We have set ourselves an ambitious target to become a leading player in the digital space while strengthening our core TV offering. We will continue to solidify our ‘Digital First, TV Always’ proposition, leveraging our existing strengths to grow in segments where we are present and breaking ground in new markets with new and innovative offerings. The strategic partnership we have struck for Viacom18 is a big step in this direction which will help set the Company on a long-term growth trajectory and create one of India’s leading content company.”
