TV18 Broadcast revenue jumps 22% YoY in Q2 led by news business, movie studio, sports vertical

TV18 Broadcast reported a 22 percent year-on-year (YoY) rise in consolidated revenue from operations to Rs 1,794 crore in the July-September quarter (Q2FY24) driven by the performance of the news business, movie studio, and sports vertical. It posted consolidated revenue at Rs 1,473 crore in Q2FY23. TV18 news network delivered strong growth in advertising revenue despite the continued weakness in the advertising environment. From the news segment, operating revenues climbed 20 percent YoY to Rs 357 crore in Q2FY24. Operating EBITDA, on the other hand, turned positive to Rs 10 crore from a loss of 5 crore in the year-ago period. TV18’s news revenue growth was underpinned by the strong viewership share that the network has achieved over the last eighteen months which has helped it to improve pricing across the network. TV18’s sharp focus on building IP-events business has also helped it drive growth in revenue. Segment-wise, TV18 News continued to be the highest-reach television network in the country, reaching around 190 million people in India every week. The network maintained its leadership position in key markets with CNBC TV18, News18 India, and CNN News18 being the number 1 ranking channels in their respective genres. All India viewership share from the news network stood at 11.4 percent. The company’s consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) loss widened to Rs 198 crore in Q2FY24 as compared to Rs 40.6 crore in the year-ago period. “The decline in EBITDA was due to investments made in growth verticals – sports and digital. Both these verticals require investments in the near term to build a strong consumer proposition, which will help the company rise to the leadership position in the cluttered media landscape,” the company said in an exchange filing. TV18 Broadcast booked a net loss of Rs 29 crore in Q2FY24 from a profit of Rs 5.7 crore in Q2FY23. “With India cricket rights, Viacom18 now has the biggest portfolio of sports properties, making it the default choice for sports fans. Our news network has fortified its positions across the markets which bodes well as we head into the festive season followed by elections,” said Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of TV18. “Our focus continues to be on providing quality content to the audience and as India’s only network with presence across news, entertainment, and sports, we are in a unique position to serve customers across the country and demographic cohorts,” he added. TV18’s entertainment portfolio, meanwhile, saw operating revenue rise 22 percent YoY to Rs 1,438 crore in Q2FY24, led by movie, sports, and digital segments. However, operating EBITDA booked a loss of Rs 208 crore in Q2FY24. While the sports revenue was driven by two cricket series (West India versus India and India versus Australia), the digital (JioCinema) revenue was led by advertising on original shows like Bigg Boss OTT, Taali, Kaalkoot and TV network shows like Khatron Ke Khiladi. The entertainment network share increased by 50 basis points (bps) to 10.5 percent. JioCinema was the top broadcaster OTT application in India during the quarter with an average of 210 million monthly active users, according to data from Data.ai. The channel Colours was the reach leader in Hindi General Entertainment Channels, seeing a growth of 17 percent in non-primetime viewership in the first half of this fiscal. Besides, Colors Cineplex, Colors Kannada, Colors Marathi, and Colors Super enjoyed a viewership share of 8.5 percent, 22.7 percent, 15 percent, and 3.1 percent, respectively. Viacom 18 turned out to be the undisputed leader in niche genres- be it kids, youth or English. Moreover, Viacom18 Studios delivered two blockbuster films, Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani, and OMG-2. On October 25, the stock price of TV18 Broadcast fell 2 percent to Rs 42 per share as against a 0.2 percent drop in the Sensex benchmark, as of 12:05 pm. Disclaimer: Firstpost is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.