India's Adani-owned NDTV Q2 profit falls amid advertising woes

TV18 Broadcast

23/10/2023 10:32

BENGALURU, Oct 23 (Reuters) - India's New Delhi
Television Ltd (NDTV)  NDTV.NS , part of the Adani Group,
reported a nearly 51% drop in second quarter profit on Monday,
as businesses cut back on advertising spending in the face of
rising interest rates.
    Consolidated net profit was 59.1 million rupees
($710,803.00) in the three months to Sept. 30, compared with
120.1 million rupees a year earlier, it said in an exchange
filing.
    Indian broadcasters are grappling with slowing advertising
spending as businesses clamp down on discretionary investments
to rein in costs amid high inflation and aggressive interest
rate hikes.
    Still, the company rebounded from a loss in April-June.
    Revenue from operations fell nearly 10% to 955.5 million
rupees in the September quarter.
    The broadcaster is the first among its peers to report
quarterly results. Rival TV18 Broadcast  TVEB.NS  and its unit
Network18  NEFI.NS  will report their earnings later this week.
    Another competitor Zee Entertainment Enterprises  ZEE.NS 
will report next month.
    Shares of NDTV fell as much as 7.2% after the results. The
shares had fallen over 8% during the quarter, as opposed to a
more-than-30% jump in the Nifty Media  .NIFTYMED  index.
    NDTV and other listed Adani-owned companies have seen their
shares battered since a U.S. short-seller, earlier this year,
accused the group of improperly using offshore tax havens and
stock manipulation. Adani Group had rejected the allegations. 

($1 = 83.1454 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann
Thoppil)
 ((varunvyas.hebbalalu@thomsonreuters.com;))