The tide it seems is turning for Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network Ltd (SABTNL). In the latest results for Q3 (upto 31 December 2001), the company has declared a better net profit despite lower sales (as compared to Q2 2001). Net profit for Q3 is up 240 per cent to Rs 25.02 million (Rs 7.4 million in Q2 2001), while income from operations is down to Rs 179.3 million (Rs 224.3 million).
The company seems to be keeping a tight rein on costs as its interest burden has stayed put at around Rs 3 million. Expenses are down by 17 per cent to Rs 154.7 million (Rs 185.9 million) and its profit before depreciation is higher at Rs 29.9 million (Rs 21.1 million). The company has provided a lower level of tax at Rs 1.8 million (Rs 10.7 million).

indiantelevision.com has chosen to use Q2 vs Q3 as a comparative yardstick because satellite television is an extremely vibrant and fluid medium. If we compare the current quarter results with last year‘s corresponding quarter the performance seems pretty depressing. Total income in that quarter was Rs 275.6 million (Q3 2001 income: Rs 187.6 million), while net profit was Rs 43.3 million (RS 25.02 million).

The company says it is taking over the operations of Sabe TV during Q4, which will result in cost savings and thus help shoring up its balance-sheet in the future. Additionally, it is also hoping to uplink from within Indian shores thus attracting local advertisers who could not use it as a media vehicle because of forex restrictions, the management adds. The management says that net earnings from sponsored programmes on DD are up 230 per cent as compared to previous years.

The market reacted cautiously to the SABTNL‘s results, with the share opening at Rs 158 and oscillated between RS 158 and Rs 168, finally closing at Rs 160, an appreciation of one per cent. The share has been on an upward trend from 1 January when it was priced at Rs 133.

An HBO movie made it to the top 100 programmes in the week ended 13 January 2002, setting a record of sorts for the channel.
Mummy, the Hollywood blockbuster of 2000, entered both ORG Marg‘s Intam list and AC Nielsen‘s TAM data with Intam ranking it 28th with a TVR of 2.6. TAM on the other hand, gave it a higher rating of 2.88 but placed it at number 62 on its chart. The reason for the difference is that TAM data records a show‘s TVRs according to the number of times it is on air during the week, while Intam registers one show on any given time slot only once, however many times it may appear. The data collected was for all C&S homes in all 24 panels.

Mummy, aired on 12 January, was touted as the channel‘s first big movie of the year and was surrounded by a lot of on and off air promotional activity. The ratings by themselves are impressive. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that premiered on AXN in December 2001 earned a rating of 1.2 among Indian cable AB viewers in the top five metros, making it the top programme on international channels between 1 and 29 December, according to AXN Asia MD Todd Miller. Mummy thus stands head and shoulders above the other English channels.

Nevertheless, Mummy was not able to break Titanic‘s record score of 8.2 (TAM data for nine main cities 4+) when the movie premiered on Star Movies on 31 December 1999.

The Mummy seems to have succeeded where the Band of Brothers failed, for HBO. The 10 part miniseries BoB was pushed aggressively across media but failed to strike a chord with viewers, and rise on the ratings scale. Mummy has turned out a much sounder investment for the channel.