Mumbai: Network18 Media and Investments on Tuesday announced the third-quarter results for FY 2022. The media company reported its highest ever EBITDA at Rs 373 crore with margins of 22.5 per cent. It reported the highest ever quarterly revenue of Rs 1657 crore up by 16.5 per cent year-on-year.
Network18’s entertainment business margin was at 21.4 per cent and revenue was up by 16 per cent year-on-year. Its TV news business saw a sharp improvement in margin to 27.2 per cent and revenue was up by 13 per cent year-on-year.
The company’s digital news revenue grew by 41 per cent year-on-year and margins were at 21.2 per cent. Its profit before tax rose by 31 per cent YoY to Rs 337 crore driven by growth in revenue, controlled operational expenditure and lower finance costs.
“TV industry saw record high advertising volumes in the third quarter driven by strong consumer demand, increased spending by existing brands for a higher share of voice and new advertisers using the medium to widen their reach,” said the company in a statement.
“domestic subscription revenue for the quarter was flattish YoY while international subscription revenue saw a decline. The implementation timeline of NTO 2.0 regulation was postponed during the quarter by the regulator to 1 April ’22 even as the litigation regarding its validity continued in the Supreme Court of India,” it further added.
The company’s entertainment business portfolio under Viacom18 is expanding into sports broadcasting by acquiring rights to NBA, footballing events such as FIFA World Cup 2022, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, Cinch Premiership, and other sporting events like ATP Masters Tennis, Abu Dhabi T10, World Boxing Championship and Road Safety World Cricket Series.
Viacom18’s OTT platform Voot reported strong growth in its paid subscriber base during the quarter driven by the new season of Bigg Boss. The show garnered 15 billion+ minutes of watch time (AVOD+SVOD) with a daily TSV of 64 minutes during the quarter.
The company noted its share of the entertainment network in the non-news genre was 11 per cent with Colors being the second best channel in the pay Hindi GEC genre.
“We are building a strong and sustainable media franchise which not only delivers quality content to Indian audiences but also value to the shareholders,” said Network18 chairman Adil Zainulbhai. “Over the last few years, we have taken several significant steps which have helped us achieve the turn around on the profitability front and it is really encouraging to see the business now consistently deliver healthy margins, especially the digital news business which has been growing in a profitable manner. As we have seen over the last several years, content consumption is an integral part of consumers’ lives and there is a willingness to spend more time and money, provided they get access to quality content at an affordable price. Also, consumers are increasingly becoming platform-agnostic, with both TV and Digital growing simultaneously. Our endeavor is to cater to all consumers looking for news and entertainment content in their local languages, movies and leading sports events, on platforms of their choice.”
