Zee Entertainment, riding on the momentum in both advertising and subscriptions, delivered a set of numbers that were ahead of market estimates for the March quarter.

Rises 20% in a month

Of course, the stock fell by over a per cent on Wednesday, but it has rallied more than 20 per cent over the past one month alone.

The company has witnessed a well-balanced growth in FY13. Zee which derives half its revenues from advertising, delivered a growth of 15.5 per cent growth in revenues from this avenue over the same period last year.

This rate is much better than those delivered by print media peers for the March quarter. Advertising revenues thus seem well set to grow even in a challenging macro environment.

Many States are going to the polls later this year and the Union Government too seems to be spending more on publicity, which may provide further impetus to advertising revenues for the company.

Revenues from subscriptions, which account for 47 per cent of Zee’s revenues too grew at a healthy 13 per cent.

With digitisation of cable networks being implemented in large cities and metros, revenues from subscriptions may be expected to grow at a fair pace for the company.

In the March quarter, the company’s revenues grew 11 per cent over the same period in the previous fiscal to Rs 964.3 crore, while net profits grew 10.6 per cent to Rs 180.4 crore.

Being the larges player in the media space, the Zee Entertainment stock has participated extremely well in the market rally that started in the second half of 2012, with the stock rallying over 93 per cent over the past one year.

>venkatasubramanian.k@thehindu.co.in

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