Healthy growth in advertisement and subscription revenue due to the popularity of Zee Entertainment Enterprise’s channels and content has kept the leading media company’s December quarter results in good stead.

Ad revenue The advertisement revenue of Zee has rebounded sharply after the GST-led slowdown in the previous quarters, increasing nearly 26 per cent year-on-year in the December quarter of 2017 to ₹1,202 crore.

This segment is mostly driven by the company’s channels, such as Zee Cinema and other General Entertainment Channels (GEC), which have a significant presence in various Indian languages.

Also, the popularity of some of their weekly shows, such as Kum Kum Bhagya , added to their advertisement revenue growth. Nearly 64 per cent of the company’s revenue is generated through advertisement. The subscription revenue for the December quarter increased about 8 per cent year-on-year (adjusted for the sports business that was hived off in March 2017) to ₹404 crore. This is because of the early contract renewals by the company for this quarter. This, along with Zee’s popular content, in channels such as Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, Zee Telugu and Zee Tamil, has helped it gain viewership during the quarter.

The company has lined-up a healthy pipeline of original content in the coming quarters, too. Though the impending TRAI’s tariff order brings some uncertainty to subscription revenue, Zee stands to gain from the implementation of this order, due to its leadership position across domestic broadcasting segments.

The company’s profit increased about 28 per cent year-on-year for the December quarter 2017 to ₹322 crore. At the operating level, the margins have improved to 33 per cent in December quarter 2017 from 29 per cent in the same period last year. Zee is one of the leading entertainment networks, which had 18.3 per cent viewership share during the December quarter.

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