Mumbai: TV18 Broadcast Limited today announced its results for the quarter ended 30th June 2018.
TV18 reported a consolidated operating EBITDA of Rs. 39 crores in Q1FY19 (a sharp improvement YoY), despite impact of losses from the startup of Colors Tamil. Business-as-usual EBITDA margin for Entertainment business improved significantly, and losses in Regional News also reduced. Consolidated operating revenues at Rs 1,088 crores grew 11% YoY (on a comparable basis).
Highlights for the quarter:
The industry environment has been recovering, and advertising is on an upswing in general. Sentiment has been positive as growth revives in the new financial year, tempered in part by macro-factors like hardening interest rates and a depreciating INR.
TV18 posted 11% total revenue growth on a comparable basis: Subscription revenues for our entire bouquet grew 10% YoY. Advertising and other revenues benefitted from the improving industry environment and our full-portfolio offering.
TV18’s News bouquet (20 channels) is #1; News viewership share rose to 10.3%: TV18’s News bouquet gained viewership share (driven by Hindi and Regional channels) to emerge as the top news network in India. Business News maintained its growth by virtue of its industry- leading position, and General News continued to be driven by stellar performance of our Hindi News channel.
Regional News revenues grew smartly after a prolonged weakness; led by improved channel performance, integrated approach (including branding) and tailwinds from government/election-related spending. Infotainment has been growing well too, helped by History TV18’s new HD feed and digital extensions. All these led to an overall improvement in profitability, especially as losses in regional news fell sharply YoY on a fairly stable cost-base.
Viacom18 bouquet’s (30 channels) share of entertainment viewership rose to 11.4%: Colors ended the quarter as the leader in the pay-GEC charts in urban. Regional GECs in Marathi and Kannada gained, while Gujarati and Bengali too saw much improved monetization. A solid show by Kids channels and MTV Beats offset genre weakness in English entertainment and Youth.
Business-as-usual margins more than doubled: Entertainment topline growth has been constrained by lower hours of non-fiction programming and lesser film premieres compared to the base quarter, and a late start for season 3 of marquee franchise “Naagin” which has been the #1 fiction show. The tweaks in programming have resulted in an improvement in EBITDA margins for the business. Adjusting for the Rs 34 Cr losses of Colors Tamil in Q1, business-as-usual margins for Entertainment have expanded from sub-4% to 8.3%.
Mr. Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of Network18, said, “Our television channels reach out to 700 million people across the country, making every 1 in 2 Indians our consumer. We have 53 domestic channels across news and entertainment, making us a formidable player. The improving advertising environment and our rising viewership are positives, as we continue investing into growing our offerings across genres.”
