BENGALURU: Riding on the back of higher advertising and subscription based revenues in the quarter ended 30 September, 2015 (Q2-2016), the Subhash Chandra led content and broadcast player Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited’s (Zeel) net income was up nine per cent at Rs 247.40 crore (17.9 per cent margin) than the Rs 229 (20 per cent margin) in Q2-2015. This was also 1.5 per cent more than Rs 243.76 crore (18.2 per cent of consolidated total revenue or TR) in the immediate trailing quarter.

The company’s total revenue in Q2-2016 increased 23.9 per cent to Rs 1384.90 crore from Rs 1117.82 crore in Q2-2015 and was 3.4 per cent more than the Rs 1339.86 crore in Q1-2016.

Advertising revenues saw a 34.7 per cent hike in Q2-2016 to Rs 843.31 crore (60.9 per cent of TR) as compared to the Rs 625.94 crore (56 per cent of TR) and was 8.1 per cent more than the Rs 779.93 crore (58.2 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016.

Subscription revenue in the current quarter also increased 12.9 per cent to Rs 479.14 crore (34.6 per cent of TR) from Rs 424.45 crore (38 per cent of TR) in the corresponding year ago quarter and rose 3.6 per cent as compared to the Rs 462.53 crore (34.5 per cent of TR) in the immediate trailing quarter.

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

Zeel’s total revenue during the half year ended 30 September, 2015 (HY-2016) increased 25.4 per cent to Rs 2724.76 crore from Rs 2172.88 crore in HY-2015.

Advertising revenue increased 30.1 per cent to Rs 1623.24 crore (59.6 per cent of TR) in HY-2016 from Rs 1248.04 crore (57.4 per cent of TR) in the corresponding year ago period. 

Subscription revenue in HY-2016 at Rs 941.67 crore (34.6 per cent of TR) increased 12.6 per cent from Rs 836.58 crore (38.5 per cent of TR) in HY-2015.

PAT for the current half year increased to Rs 491.16 crore (18 per cent margin) from Rs 438.12 crore (20.2 per cent margin) in HY-2015.

Other results reported by Zeel for Q2-2016 and HY-2016:

Total Expense (TE) in Q2-2016 at Rs 1050.05 crore (75.8 per cent of TR) increased 29.5 per cent as compared to the Rs 810.75 (72.5 per cent of TR) in Q2-2015 and was 0.4 per cent more than the Rs 1045.47 crore (78 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016.

Zeel’s operating cost increased 28.3 per cent to 603.62 crore (43.6 per cent of TR) as compared to the Rs 470.30 crore (42.1 per cent of TR) in the corresponding year ago quarter, but was 1.2 per cent lower than the Rs 610.76 crore (45.6 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016.

Other expense in Q2-2016 fell 18.3 per cent to Rs 179.05 crore (12.9 per cent of TR) as compared to the Rs 219.11 crore (19.6 per cent of TR) and was 2.3 per cent lower than the Rs 183.24 crore (13.7 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016.

Employee Benefit Expense increased 17.4 per cent to Rs 126.70 crore (9.1 per cent of TR) than the Rs 107.96 crore (9.7 per cent of TR) in Q2-2015, but was 8.2 per cent lower than the Rs 138.01 crore (10.3 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016.

Advertisement and Publicity expense in the current quarter was 64.6 per cent more at Rs 120.90 crore (8.7 per cent of TR) in Q2-2016 as compared to the Rs 73.45 crore (6.6 per cent of TR) and was 25.1 per cent more than the Rs 96.65 crore (7.2 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016.

Company speak

Chandra said, “Zee has seen an impressive performance during the second quarter. The improvement in advertisement industry and improved performance of our network has helped us grow ahead of the market. We continue to see the positive results of our investments. We will endeavour to continue on this track going forward and pursue new opportunities that will yield long term growth. Our effort is to entertain audience across the world.”

Zeel managing director and CEO Punit Goenka added, “We are quite pleased with our quarterly performance and it continues to remain on track. We have grown as a network on the back of superior programming on our new and existing products. The improvement in the overall advertisement market has further aided our strong growth. The domestic subscription market has also seen steady growth.”

“Zee is the leading content player in the Indian TV industry offering maximum hours of content for audiences both home and abroad. Going forward, our endeavor would be to further enhance our offerings and be ahead of the market in delivering innovative and high quality entertainment to our viewers across consumption platforms. We believe that in this fast evolving media and  entertainment space delivering excellent content will remain key for monetising revenues, from both advertising and subscription standpoint,” said Goenka.