BENGALURU: Q3-2015 has been a great quarter and 9M-2015 even better for the radio industry as is evident from the PAT /Operating results posted for six radio groups representing 90 radio stations or 36.7 per cent of the 245 private FM radio stations universe under phases I and II in India. 

This report considers PAT posted by two radio companies (ENIL – Radio Mirchi, 33 radio stations; Jagran Prakashan – Radio City – 20 radio stations) that equals 53 radio stations or 21.6 per cent of the current total universe in the country and 58.9 per cent of the radio stations considered here. If one were to consider only the operating results of these companies, the operating profitability numbers would be even higher. Also, figures for Radio City are not exact and have been rounded off, as is evident from the figures mentioned by Jagran Prakashan in its various filings with the bourses and investor presentations.

Operating results for radio segments of three of the four other companies - DB Corp (My FM-17 stations), B.A.G Films (Radio Dhamaal, 10 stations) and HT Media (Fever FM, four stations) have shown improvement, with TV Today’s Oye FM (six stations) being only one that has shown income de-growth but has reported a reduction of operating loss from Rs 2.90 crore in Q3-2014 to a lower loss of Rs 1.94 crore in the current quarter.

There is a deviation in this report from normal practise – PAT numbers of the two companies that have indicated them separately have been combined with the operating results of the other four companies here to arrive at the total numbers considered here, which makes this not completely an apples to apples story. 

Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore

Total income reported by the six radio groups for Q3-2015 at Rs 233.60 crore was 18.7 per cent more y-o-y as compared to the Rs 196.76 crore. Operating Profit/PAT for Q3-2015 at Rs 67.83 crore was 49.7 per cent more as compared to the Rs 45.30 crore reported for Q3-2014. 

For 9M-2015, income reported by the six groups for radio operations was Rs 631.05 crore, which was 19.2 per cent more than the Rs 529.44 crore in 9M-2014, while Operating Profit/PAT in 9M-2015 at Rs 151.73 crore was 61.9 per cent more than the Rs 93.72 crore reported for last year’s corresponding nine month period.

Q3-2015 and 9M-2015 growth rates of revenue and PAT/results reported by these companies are also definitely better than those reported for FY-2014 (year ended 31 March, 2014) when compared to FY-2013 (year ended 31 March, 2013). For FY-2014, combined revenue reported by the six radio groups was Rs 739.64 crore, which was 12.2 per cent higher than the Rs 659.23 crore in FY-2013. PAT/Operating result for FY-2014 was Rs 154.22 crore, which was 46.3 per cent more than the Rs 105.45 crore in FY-2013. 

It must be pointed out here that the biggest player in terms of revenues as well as performance in this list of six radio players is ENIL or Radio Mirchi. In Q3-2015, ENIL’s revenue of Rs 116.98 crore formed 50.1 per cent of the total revenue of Rs 233.60 reported by all the six listed players in that quarter and its PAT of Rs 32.84 crore is 48.4 per cent of the performance (PAT/Operating profit reported) by the six players.

ENIL’s income and PAT in Q3-2015 were 18.7 per cent higher and 40.9 per cent more than the income and PAT respectively reported by the company for the corresponding year ago quarter, albeit equal to and lower when compared to the six companies revenue and PAT that grew 18.7 per cent  and 49.7 per cent respectively.

For Q3-2015, Radio Dhamaal showed the largest y-o-y revenue growth of 173.8 per cent to Rs 2.43 crore from Rs 0.89 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter while Radio City reported the largest growth in PAT of 147.8 per cent to Rs 17.10 crore in Q3-2015 from Rs 6.90 crore reported in the corresponding year ago quarter. As a matter of fact, Radio Dhamaal has shown a good a turnaround during 9M-2015 with an operating profit of Rs 1.12 crore as compared to a loss of Rs 2.08 crore in 9M-2014. 

The lowest y-o-y growth in revenue was actually de-growth or fall in revenue of 8.5 per cent by Oye FM in Q3-2015 at Rs 4 crore as compared to the Rs 4.37 crore in Q3-2014.