TV18 delivers strong operating performance

TV18 BroadcastLimited announced its results for the quarter/nine months ended31st December, 2015. Highlights of the un-audited financial results as compared to the previous year are:

Highlights of Operations:

Operating revenues on a consolidated basis stood at Rs. 692.4 crore in Q3 FY16, up by 14% YoY, from Rs. 607.2 crore in Q3 FY15.
Q3 FY16 Profit Before Tax (before exceptional items and prior period items) on a consolidated basis stood at Rs. 92.3 crore, up by 57% YoY, from Rs. 58.8 crore in Q3 FY15
9M FY16 operating revenues on a consolidated basis stood at Rs. 1,897.6 crore, up by 12% YoY, from Rs.1,688.6 crore
9M FY16 operating PBDIT on a consolidated basis stood at Rs. 153.2 crore, down by 17% YoY, from Rs. 183.8 crore in 9M FY15.
9M FY16 Profit Before Tax (before exceptional items and prior period items) on a consolidated basis stood at Rs. 114.3 crore against Rs. 114.5 crore in 9M FY15.
9M FY16 includes operating loss of Rs.45 crore on account of new ETV news channels and Colors Infinity and also a one-time expense of Rs.10 crore for rebranding ETV regional entertainment channels as Colors.TV18 Q3 FY16 Investor Update- January 15, 2016
9M FY15 profitability vis-à-vis 9M FY16 was significantly influenced by advertisement income on account of the General Elections and the Union Budget.
The financials of Prism TV Private Limited (Prism) have been consolidated as a Joint Venture effective 1 August 2015 as Prism ceased to be a subsidiary and continues as a Joint Venture of the Company from the aforesaid date.
ICRA Limited (ICRA) – the Credit Rating Agency, has upgraded/reaffirmed the fund based/non-fund based bank limits of Rs. 354 crores to [ICRA] AA+ (pronounced ICRA double A plus) from [ICRA] A (pronounced ICRA A) and reaffirmed/reassigned rating of the Commercial Paper Programme aggregating to Rs. 400 Crores at [ICRA]A1+ (pronounced ICRA A one plus).

Business Highlights:

Business News – CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNBC Bajar and CNBC-TV18 Prime HD
CNBC-TV18 continued to be the No.1 channel in the English business news genre with 41%1 average market share. CNBC TV18 reached out to more than 26 million viewers2 in the quarter.
CNBC Awaaz continued to dominate as the No.1 channel in the Hindi business news genre with a 53%3 average market share. It reached out to more than 57 million4 viewers in the same time period.
CNBC Bajar continued to engage with its audience, reaching out to more than 7 million 5 viewers during the quarter.

General News - CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBN Lokmat

CNN-IBN continued to be a consistent player, reaching out to more than 36 million viewers1. CNN IBN emerged as the #3 General English News channel with 19% Market Share2. The month of December saw CNN-IBN celebrate its 10th anniversary. On this special occasion, the channel did a host of special shows along with special commemorative promos capturing the channel’s highpoints during the last 10 years. The channel was once again recognized for its outstanding programming and content, and bagged 3 awards at the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards.
IBN7 continues to engage with its audience with a viewership share of 6.4%3 in the quarter and reached out to 180 million viewers4.
IBN Lokmat reached out to 34 million viewers5 during the quarter and emerged as the #3
Marathi News channel with 28% Market Share6. It continued to engage audiences through in-depth coverage of key local and national events, as well as impactful campaigns and launch of various new shows.

Entertainment– Viacom18

In December, Colors was the No.1 pay channel with a viewership share of 13%1. Colors also had the top 5 fiction shows of the top 10 fiction shows2 across Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs).
Nick continued to lead the Kids genre with a viewership share of 30%3. Nick HD+, first Kids HD channel in India was launched by Viacom18. Sonic continued to engage with the young audience by airing popular shows
In the youth entertainment category, MTV was No.2 with a viewership share of 25%4.‘Splitsvilla 8’ was the top show in the youth genre. Another popular show launched in this quarter ‘MTV Big F’ ranked among top 3 shows in genre. MTV FLYP, the 1st MTV themed café in the world opened in New Delhi in Dec’15
In the English Entertainment space, Vh1 was the No.1 in the English entertainment and music Genre with 24%5 market share. The Stage”, the 1st indigenous English singing talent show in India was launched on Colors Infinity. Several new shows were launched on VH1, Comedy Central and Colors Infinity including ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and ‘Mad Dogs’.
In this Quarter, the Reach for all the channels under the Viacom18 boutique was 537 million viewers6
ETV Entertainment (Prism TV Private Limited)
Colors Marathi continued to be the No.2 channel in the Marathi GEC genre with 28%1 market share.
Colors Kannada continued to be the No.1 player in Karnataka with 40%2viewership share.

Infotainment – History TV18

History TV18 has been a consistent & strong #2 in the genre across 6 Megacities, with a viewership share of 24%1 and has been continuously engaging with the audiences, reaching out to more than 56 million 2 viewers during the quarter.
Several new shows such as Houdini, Bonnie & Clyde and Genius were launched in this quarter which helped History TV18 stay true to its brand promise of disruptive programming. These were supported by a 360 degree marketing push across radio, print, outdoor and digital.

ETV News (Panorama Television Private Limited)

All the bouquet of the ten news channels of ETV Network continued to maintain top ranks in the quarter.
ETV Bihar/Jharkhand, ETV Rajasthan and ETV Uttar Pradesh/UK continued to be dominant players in their respective markets, occupying #1 position1