Mumbai : TV18 Broadcast Limited today announced its results for the quarter ended 30th September, 2017.
TV18 posted consolidated revenues of Rs. 684 crores (including proportionate share of JVs) in Q2FY18, a 4% YoY growth. Despite industry headwinds, profitability continued to improve; led by strong performance of niches, scale-up of new initiatives and cost-control.
Highlights for the quarter:
- The quarter witnessed muted ad-revenues due to a pullback by advertisers: The deferment of ad-spends which started in mid-June continued to hurt during till mid-September. Since then, green shoots have been visible and the growth trajectory is recovering, driven by the festive season. We believe that bottlenecks in GST implementation shall ease in due course; and the GST regime shall push the formal economy in the long run, boosting adspends.
- TV18 posted 4% revenue growth (including JVs): Entertainment business registered revenue growth even in an adverse environment, driven by rising strength of our bouquet of properties. National News revenue growth was constrained by softness in ad-spends due to macro-pressures. Regional news continued to witness weak revenues as a result of lower government and election-related advertising versus last year, dragging the bottomline.
- Viacom18’s share of entertainment viewership (ex-sports) stayed stable at ~10%. Niche channels like Nick, Comedy Central and VH1 put in a strong show, driving advertising revenues in an otherwise adverse environment. Colors and Rishtey were in the top two in Urban and rural Hindi markets respectively. Viacom18’s social-message led movie ‘Toilet – Ek Prem Katha’ became the top grosser of the year.
- Consolidating on FY17 launches: All TV channels launched last year are well on their way to reducing their operating losses. Amongst these, Rishtey Cineplex and MTV Beats are ahead of (Rs Crores) Particulars Q2 FY18 Q2 FY17 Growth YoY% H1 FY18 H1 FY17 Growth YoY% Revenue (incl. proportionate share of JVs) 684 659 4% 1,312 1,260 4% Segment Operating EBITDA (incl. prop. share of JVs) 38 15 146% 36 10 275% Revenue (as per Ind AS) 227 240 (5%) 446 451 (1%) Operating EBITDA (as per Ind AS) (0) (11) NM (14) (30) NM TV18 Q2 FY18 Investor Update- 11th October, 2017 Page | 2 the curve driven by overall growth in FTA and traction of Bollywood content, and Colors Super and News18 Tamil too have made rapid strides. VOOT continues to see growing traction with 40mn+ downloads, and has been awarded for innovations like its progressive web-app.
Mr. Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of TV18, said: “We are now the largest broadcast news company, and reach 26 states across India in 16+ languages. We continue to invest into regional platforms across both news and entertainment. Our brands have high mind-share, and audiences have appreciated our bouquet and rewarded us through consistently strong ratings. Our niche channels have also performed really well in the past quarter..”
