NEW DELHI: Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra and his son and Zee News managing director Punit Goenka were today granted interim protection from arrest by a Delhi court till 14 December in the Rs one billion alleged extortion complaint filed by Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal?s firm against two editors of Zee news channel.

Additional Sessions Judge Raj Rani Mitra said the question of extension of interim bail would be decided on 14 December.

The judge passed the order after hearing arguments on the anticipatory bail plea of Chandra and his son, in which their counsel pressed for interim protection from arrest for joining the investigation. They have been asked to appear before the Delhi Police on 8 December.

Senior advocate Geeta Luthra and Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for the duo, had contended that their clients are ready to join the probe if the police give them the assurance that the two will not be arrested during the time of interrogation. "We (Chandra and Goenka) will join the investigation as has been asked by the police for 8 December and even before, if required.

"But, if the police decides to arrest us, then it should give at least five days? time so that we can argue the matter at length on some other day," the counsel argued. They had also said that their clients should be granted protection so that they can join the probe without fear of arrest.

Special Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan opposed their plea saying, "We cannot commit or assure that they (Chandra and his son) will not be arrested. The moment we get a lead of the alleged extortion made on behalf of Zee Group by their two editors, we will arrest them."

The prosecutor contended that the investigation till now and the evidence point towards the alleged involvement of Chandra and Goenka in the whole conspiracy.

He also said the two jailed editors (Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia) have not acted alone and that the whole episode was planned in collusion with the seniors of the Zee group in a conspiracy hatched to extort Rs 100 crore for their channel.

Both Chaudhary and Ahluwalia, presently lodged in Tihar jail, have been booked under section 384 (extortion), 420 (cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code.

A Delhi court had on 28 November rejected the bail plea of ZNL editors, Sudhir Chaudhary (Zee News) and Samir Ahluwalia (Zee Business), and sent them to two-day police custody till 30 November.

Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia were arrested on 27 November on charges of extortion by the crime branch of Delhi Police on an FIR filed by a JSPL official last month.

The company alleged that ZNL editors Chaudhary and Ahluwalia had demanded Rs 1 billion worth of advertisements from the company in return for favourable coverage in the scam involving allotment of coal blocks, wherein JSPL is one of the companies that allegedly made windfall gains from arbitrary coal block allocations.

Earlier, the Broadcast Editors? Association (BEA) had removed Zee News editor and business head Sudhir Chaudhary from the post of treasurer and primary membership of the body after a three-member committee set-up to probe the matter had found the two acting in an in-appropriate manner.The removal followed a sting operation carried out by Jindal?s company during meetings in a Delhi hotel.

The video recordings from a hidden camera purportedly showed Zee Business Editor Ahluwalia demanding money from Jindals in exchange for going soft on coverage of alleged involvement of Jindal?s firms in the coal scam.

MUMBAI: A three-member Arbitral Tribunal has held the BCCI guilty of "exploiting its dominant position" for arbitrarily terminating its five year broadcast rights contract with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel).

The Tribunal comprising Justice A.S. Anand (Retd.), Former Chief Justice of India Justice Y.K. Sabharwal (Retd.), and Former Chief Justice of India and Justice B.N. Srikrishna (Retd.), Former Judge, Supreme Court of India, held that Zee was treated unfairly in its commercial contracts, due to the launch of the Indian Cricket League and was illegally blacklisted.

The award amount of approximately Rs 1.4 billion payable by BCCI to Zee includes the security deposit of Rs 300 million with interest at 11 per annum from 31 May, 2007, loss of profit and goodwill. The Tribunal also observed that the BCCI blacklisting of Zee (and its group/affiliate companies) from participating in any bidding process of BCCI was ?clearly illegal?.

The Award was passed in favour of Zeel holding that BCCI was guilty of breaching its contract with Zee and that Zee was entitled to damages on all counts including loss of goodwill, loss of profit and also refund of security deposit with interest.

Zeel MD Punit Goenka commented, ?Zee welcomes the Award handed over to it by an eminent panel of jurists. This award is towards recovery of the losses that we have incurred in the sports business in the past. We continue to remain committed to our sports business in the long term.?

This dispute pertains to an agreement executed in April 2006 between BCCI and Zee whereby Zee was granted the exclusive media rights to telecast all ODIs to be held between India and any other country in any neutral territory outside India for a period of five years.

According to Zee, this agreement was terminated illegally and invalidly by BCCI in May 2007 around the time of launch of the ICL by the Essel Group resulting in Zee invoking arbitration for wrongful termination of the contract.

The termination of the agreement by BCCI after the series held in Abu Dhabi and the tri-series held in Malaysia was termed by the Tribunal as ?clearly illegal and invalid?.

The Tribunal said: ?We are of the view that breach of agreement dated 12.04.2006 was committed by BCCI and not by the Claimant? while making the award in favour of Zee. It appears from the material on the record that BCCI took the action of termination of claimants rights under Agreement dated 12.4.2006 on account of Claimant launching of ICL and not for reasons made out in its letter of termination. To us it seems that BCCI was exploiting its dominating position in respect of game of cricket in India."

MUMBAI: Subhash Chandra-owned Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) reported a 17.2 per cent rise in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended 30 September helped by a strong growth in revenues. Its net profit on a standalone basis for the second quarter, however, was down 42 per cent on a sharp rise in expenses.

Zeel‘s consolidated net profit in the second quarter was Rs 1.87 billion compared with Rs 1.59 billion a year earlier as its operating revenues rose 33.8 per cent to Rs 9.53 billion compared with Rs 7.12 billion a year earlier.

The company‘s net profit on a standalone basis in the second quarter was Rs 679 million, down from Rs 1.18 billion a year earlier as rise in expenses far outstripped growth in operating revenues. Its standalone operating revenues during the quarter was up 22 per cent at Rs 6.36 billion from a year earlier against a 47 per cent rise in standalone expenses year-on-year at Rs 5.40 billion.

The company‘s standalone businesses include entertainment and sports business in India.

CONDENSED STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS

ZEEL‘s revenues from sports business more than doubled to Rs 1.81 billion in the second quarter from Rs 881 million a year earlier. Its revenues from businesses other than sports which include a bouquet of entertainment channels was up 23 per cent at Rs 7.72 billion in the second quarter compared with Rs 6.24 billion a year earlier.

The company‘s consolidated advertising revenues at Rs 5.28 billion were 33.7 per cent higher than a year earlier contributed significantly by sports business, while subscription revenues rose 35.7 per cent to Rs 3.95 billion from a year earlier. Domestic subscription revenues stood at Rs 2.81, while international subscription revenues were Rs 1.14 billion.

Zeel said its consolidated operating profit for the second quarter was Rs 2.17 billion, 7.8 per cent higher than a year earlier. Its operating profit margin for the quarter was 22.8 per cent.

Zeel chairman Subhash Chandra said. "This (second) quarter the company has continued to build on the momentum set in the first quarter. We look forward to continuing our investment in the television media space and take advantage of the growth opportunities ahead of us."

The company expects television advertising spends to turnaround after having been impacted this year by the economic slowdown.

"We are confident of continued double digit growth of television advertising spends over the next few years. At ZEE, we have created a good portfolio of assets and will continue to make prudent investments with a clear focus on returns over the long term," said Zeel managing director and CEO Punit Goenka.

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd?s (Zeel) financial performance has grown in strength in the five years since 2007-08, the year that saw the Subhash Chandra-promoted group?s flagship channel Zee TV swell its share in general entertainment by 56 per cent to 26 per cent amidst stiff competition.

Zeel, which pioneered private sector television entertainment 20 years ago, has seen its income in 2011-12 rise to Rs 30.405 billion, 65 per cent more than in 2007-08, while its net profit increased to Rs 5.891 billion, 53 per cent higher than five years ago. The income and profit figures increased as it kept a tight control on programming cost. Its programming cost to income from operations was 37.4 per cent compared with 28.2 per cent five years ago.

The last two years have also seen Zeel turning into a zero debt company with loans to effective networth dropping from 13.5 per cent in fiscal year 2008 to zero in fiscal year 2011.

Zeel?s share of advertisement income and subscription income has nearly been at the same level over the last five years, which suggests that the advertisement revenue has kept pace with the growing subscription revenue. The share of advertising revenue in fiscal year 2012 was 52.1 per cent compared with 50.7 per cent five years ago.

As the Subhash Chandra television entertainment group continued consolidating its financial performance, the company?s market capitalisation has swung back to the end-March 2008 level. The global financial crisis in the second half of 2008 had caused its market cap to sink to Rs 46.157 billion at the end of March 2009 from Rs 106.072 billion a year earlier. At the end of March 2012, Zeel?s market capitalisation was Rs 123.202 billion, 14 per cent higher than the pre-2008.

The operating profit margin in fiscal year 2008 was the highest in the last five years. The television entertainment group is yet to reach the operating profit margin of 30 per cent achieved during the year. Its operating profit margin in the fiscal year 2012 was 24 per cent, down from 27 per cent in fiscal year 2011 and 28 per cent fiscal year 2010.

"The sports business losses have somewhat dragged down the overall Ebitda level. But Ebitda from non-sports business is still significantly higher and ended at 34 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal," said a media analyst.

Fiscal year 2009 saw improvements across key operating metrics of Zeel. Its net profit for the year at Rs 5.124 billion was 34 per cent higher than a year earlier, on an 18 per cent year-on-year increase in income from operations to Rs 21.773 billion. This was also despite a drop in operating profit margin.

The fiscal year 2010 was a year of creating operating efficiencies for Zeel, which helped it reduce expenses by 2.63 per cent year-on-year to Rs 15.863 billion. The income from operations during the year had remained flat at Rs 21.998 billion.

The performance in 2010 was a result of a conscious decision to focus on cash flows and improve earnings, which was well complemented by programming properties and distribution strengths from cable and reach of pay TV.

Zeel made the most of the digital drive led by the exponential growth of direct-to-home television, which had made it possible for cable and satellite television to reach 80 per cent of the TV households in the country. In the fiscal year 2011, Zeel?s income rose 36 per cent to Rs 30.088 billion from Rs 21.998 a year earlier.

In the fiscal year (2012) just before it entered 21st year of its operations, Zeel?s profitability was hit by curtailed advertisement spends caused by a slowing economy amid a global financial crisis for the second time in the last five years. Its income in the fiscal year 2012 was nearly flat at Rs 30.405 billion, while its net profit shrunk to Rs 5.891 billion from Rs 6.369 billion.

As Zeel managing director and CEO Punit Goenka puts it, the company?s financial performance has been stable in fiscal year 2012, having touched Rs 15.8 billion of advertising income and Rs 13.2 billion of subscription revenue.

MUMBAI: Beating the economic slowdown and market expectations, Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) has posted a 21 per cent jump in net profit for the fiscal-first quarter on the back of a strong ad growth and cut in sports losses.

Operating revenue also rose 21 per cent to Rs 8.43 billion for the quarter ended 30 June 2012. Advertising revenue surprised market forecasts, jumping 18 per cent to Rs 4.47 billion, as the company?s flagship channel, Zee TV, gained market share and viewership.

Zeel reported consolidated net profit of Rs 1.57 billion for the quarter, up from Rs 1.30 billion.

Zeel chairman Subhash Chandra said, ?It is encouraging to see that Zeel has recorded a strong improvement in the operating and the financial performance during the quarter. This has been on the back of increased investments that we are undertaking to grow the business and the market share."

Zeel operating revenue also jumped 21 per cent during the quarter to Rs 8.43 billion (from Rs 6.98 billion), while expenses grew by 12 per cent.

Consolidated operating profit (Ebitda) for the quarter zoomed 50 per cent to Rs 2.33 billion, from Rs 1.56 billion in the year-ago period. Ebitda margins for the quarter stood at Rs 27.7 per cent.

Said Zeel MD and CEO Punit Goenka, ?Zee has started the year on a good note with improvement in the operating performance in Q1 FY?13. During the quarter, we have been able to improve operating margins, partly due to higher viewership share and partly due to lower sports losses.?

Zeel? ad revenue growth came primarily due to increase in market share of many of its channels. The advertising climate, though, stays sluggish.

Subscription revenue rose 19 per cent to Rs 3.64 billion. However, on a QoQ basis, it fell 9.45 per cent (Rs 4.02 billion in Q4). Domestic subscription revenue for the fiscal-first quarter stood at Rs 2.50 billion showing 20.7 per cent growth, while international subscription revenue was at Rs 1.14 billion (up 16.5 per cent Y-o-Y).

On the expenses front, programming and operating cost for the quarter saw a 10 per cent rise to Rs 3.76 billion, from Rs 3.42 billion a year ago. Employee cost rose 19 per cent over the earlier year. Selling & other expenses for the quarter stood at Rs 1.45 billion, increasing by 16 per cent. Total costs incurred by the company rose 12 per cent to Rs 6.1 billion.

Sports business:

The sports business revenue stood at Rs 992 million in the quarter, while cost incurred was Rs 1.20 billion.

Zeel share price jumped 2.64 per cent to close Friday at Rs 149.85 on the BSE.