Indian music label Saregama's Q3 profit jumps on new song releases

Saregama India

20/01/2023 11:46

BENGALURU/CHENNAI, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Saregama India Ltd
 SARE.NS  reported a 21% rise in third-quarter profit on Friday,
as the record label benefited from licensing more movie songs to
its streaming partners and growing sales of its Carvaan music
player.
    The company's profit rose to 525.2 million rupees ($6.5
million) in the December quarter, from 434 million rupees, a
year earlier.
    Revenue from operations rose nearly 23% to 1.85 billion
rupees.
    Regional film albums released in the quarter included the
Tamil film "Gatta Kusthi" and Telugu movie "Gundellona", while
films it co-produced - such as Punjabi flick "Oye Makhana" and
Malayalam actor Prithviraj Sukumaran's "Kaapa" - also hit the
screens.
    Saregama, owned by soccer-to-electricity conglomerate
RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, said revenue from its music business
rose to a record 1.55 billion rupees from 1.33 billion rupees.
    The company licenses its catalogue of over 142,000 songs to
streaming apps such as Spotify  SPOT.N  and Amazon Music
 AMZN.O  as well as television channels such as Kalaignar TV.
    Companies such as Ola Electric and Hyundai also licensed
Saregama's songs in the latest quarter.
    The media and entertainment industry is expected to grow 11%
by fiscal 2024 due to increased smartphone usage, ad revenues
shifting from traditional to digital platforms and an uptick in
demand for subscription services, according to Firstcall
Research.
    Saregama said sales of its Carvaan portable music player
increased roughly 19% to 168,000 Carvaan units, helped by the
launch of a new mobile variant.
    The company's shares closed nearly 3% higher at 359.35
rupees on Friday. They fell nearly 27% in 2022.
 
 ($1 = 81.1300 Indian rupees)
 (Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru and Praveen
Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Savio
D'Souza)
 ((Kashish.Tandon@thomsonreuters.com;))