MUMBAI: Reporting earnings for the current quarter (Q2-2015), Dish TV India Limited (Dish TV) announced addition of 3,78,000 subscribers in the quarter taking net subscriber base to 1.21 crore at the end of the quarter. The company added 3,32,000 subscribers last quarter and 164,000 subscribers in the corresponding quarter last year.
The subscription revenue for the quarter rose 12.2 per cent to Rs 616.8 crore y-o-y while the total operating income (Total Income from Operations - TIO) at Rs 672.3 crore was 11.9 per cent more than Rs 600.8 crore in Q2-2014 and 4.9 per cent more than Rs 640.6 crore in Q1-2015.
Also reporting the half yearly result, the HY1-2015 TIO for the company at Rs 1290.8 crore was 7.2 per cent more than Rs 1203.9 crore in HY1-2014.
The company announced a decline in loss for the current quarter at Rs 15.1 crore as compared to the Rs 16.05 crore in the trailing quarter but higher than the Rs 8.53 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
The total expenditure of the company for the current quarter also rose to Rs 661.9 crore, 11.1 per cent up from Rs 595.5 crore in Q2-2014 and 5.2 per cent more than Rs 628.8 in the trailing quarter.
The company reported the total expenditure for HY1-2015 at Rs 1290.8 crore which was 7.2 per cent more than Rs 1203.9 crore in HY1-2014.
The increase in total expenditure can be attributed to rise in Employee benefit expense (EBE), advertising expense (AE) and selling and distribution expenses (S&DE).
The EBE for Q2-2015 was reported at Rs 25.16 crore, up 12.6 per cent from Rs 22.34 crore in the corresponding quarter last year and 1.6 per cent lower than the trailing quarter.
AE in Q2-2015 at Rs 17.7 crore, was 39.4 per cent more than Rs 12.7 crore in Q1-2015 while the selling and distribution expenditure rose 22.1 per cent Q-o-Q.
The S&DE comprises of commission and other selling and distribution expenses.
The commissions for the company in Q2-2015 was reported at Rs 60.74, 12.2 per cent more than Rs 54.12 crore announced in the immediate trailing quarter and 41.3 per cent more than Rs 42.96 crore in Q2-2014.
While the other selling and distribution expenses at Rs 53.8 crore jumped 42.1 per cent from Rs 37.86 in Q1-2015 and 74.9 per cent from Rs 30.76 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
ARPU for the second quarter increased to Rs 172 from Rs 170 in the previous quarter. Despite significantly higher activations, churn continued to be at a healthy 0.7 per cent per month. Festival driven, higher selling and distribution expenses resulted in the EBITDA margin being marginally lower at 24.1 per cent compared to 24.5 per cent in the previous quarter, said the press release.
EBITDA for the quarter was Rs 162.3 crore, up 4.4 per cent as compared to Rs 155.4 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
Talking about the overall industry growth, Dish TV chairman Subhash Chandra said, “The industry, led by Dish TV, recorded a healthy 38 per cent Y-o-Y growth in gross additions during the second quarter of fiscal 2015.”
“Our performance during the second quarter is a reflection of our belief that a financially stable business is best placed to capitalize on any growth opportunity. While we have been growing in the right direction, growth without healthy returns to our shareholders falls below our aspirations. However, we are committed to generate them and by focusing on revenues, expenses and balance sheet quality we are building near term benefits for all our stakeholders,” he added commenting on the company’s earnings report.
Adding to the same, Dish TV MD Jawahar Goel said, “Dish TV maintained its leadership position during the second quarter. Buoyed by a healthy growth in HD sales and good traction coming in from sale of the ‘Zing’ brand.”
He further added, “In view of the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ campaign Dish TV is re-evaluating possibilities for domestic manufacturing of set top boxes.” High Definition (HD) box sales gained Traction. It comprises of 15 per cent of the incremental additions.
Despite the push back of digitization, ‘Zing’ helped propel the sales of the flagship ‘Dishtv’ brand through a wider reach and top of the mind recall. The newly introduced Sports driven packaging also found instant favor with subscribers, thus enabling Dish TV outgrow the industry growth rate, the press release added.
Click here to read the unaudited financial result
