Mumbai: The Board of Directors in its meeting held today, has approved and taken on record the unaudited consolidated financial results of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited and its subsidiaries for the quarter ended December 31, 2017.
ZEEL reported consolidated revenue of Rs. 18,381 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2018. Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) was Rs. 5,944 million. PAT for the quarter was Rs. 3,222 million. EBITDA margin for the quarter was at 32.3%.
Dr. Subhash Chandra, Chairman, ZEEL, commented, “It is very heartening to see the rebound in the economy after four quarters. The initiatives taken by the government had some short-term impact on the growth but these measures will strengthen the economy in the long run. Indian M&E sector will be a beneficiary of this growth story as people spend more time and money on consuming entertainment content. ZEEL, with its strong portfolio of entertainment offerings, is well positioned to capitalize on this opportunity.”
Mr. Punit Goenka, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, ZEEL, commented, “We are delighted to deliver a strong operating performance during the quarter. The slower growth in the last four quarters was due to specific events which required advertisers to recalibrate spends. As the impact of these factors is now behind us, ad spends have bounced back strongly and outlook remains encouraging. The recent cut in GST rates across a wide category of products should aid the growth.‘
Our domestic ad revenue growth of 26% is a testimony to the fact that television continues to remain the most effective medium for brand building. With a dominant time share along with an increasing reach, television will remain an important medium for advertisers in the foreseeable future. On top of this, digital platforms are driving incremental video consumption which represents another growth opportunity for content monetization. Our new digital platform, Zee5, scheduled to be launched in February, will enable us to capture this growth.
The domestic subscription growth for the quarter was at 7.5%. The growth so far has been lower than what we had last year as the content deals with our distribution partners are taking slightly longer to conclude due to litigation regarding the TRAI tariff regulation. Last year we had closed majority of these deals in the second and third quarter. However, this does not have any significant impact on our full year outlook for subscription growth.”
Q3FY18 Highlights:
- ZEEL was the No. 1 non-sports entertainment television network during the quarter with a viewership share of 18.3%.
- Advertising revenue for the quarter was Rs. 12,020 million recording a growth of 25.8%. Adjusted for sports, domestic advertising grew by 30.4% to Rs. 11,373 million. On a comparable basis (excluding sports, RBNL and IWPL), domestic advertising revenue grew by 25.7%. International advertising revenue for the quarter was Rs. 647 million.
- Subscription revenue for the quarter was Rs. 5,017 million. Adjusted for the sale of sports business, domestic subscription revenue grew by 7.5% to Rs. 4,036 million. International subscription revenue stood at Rs. 981 million.
- Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) for the quarter stood at Rs. 5,944 million and EBITDA margin stood at 32.3%.
- During the quarter, two HD channels, Zee Telugu HD and Zee Cinemalu HD, were launched taking the count of HD channels to 13.
- Zee Studios released two Hindi and one Marathi movie during the quarter. Hindi movie, Secret Superstar, performed well at the box office while the other two received rave reviews.
