India's Zee Entertainment Q2 profit rises on movies, subscription boost

TV18 Broadcast

09/11/2023 13:59

Nov 9 (Reuters) - India's Zee Entertainment Enterprises
 ZEE.NS  on Thursday reported its first profit in three
quarters, as strong demand for its movies and a pickup in
subscriptions eclipsed a decline in advertisement revenues.
    The media and entertainment company posted an 8.9% rise in
consolidated net profit to 1.23 billion rupees ($14.77
million)for the second quarter ended Sept. 30.
        The company, which owns TV channels including Zee TV and
Zee Cinema, posted an 8% rise in its subscription revenue on a
year-on-year basis.
    Other sales and service revenue rose 201%, helped by higher
syndication and strong theatrical performance of its movies
including "Gadar 2", even as its domestic advertisement revenue
declined 2.1%.
    "While some early pick-up in ad spending was witnessed led
by FMCG during Q2, overall pace of ad environment recovery
continues to be slow," Zee said in a statement.    
        Its results contrast weak quarterly earnings at Indian
broadcasting peers including NDTV  NDTV.NS  and TV18 Broadcast
 TVEB.NS  as high inflation forces businesses to cut back on
advertisement spending.
    Zee's total expenses rose 23% due to higher content costs in
movies and investment in ZEE5, its streaming platform.
    Total income grew 22.97% to 25.1 billion rupees.
        The results come months after an Indian tribunal cleared
a long-delayed planned merger between Zee and Sony's  6758.T 
Indian business to create a $10 billion media and entertainment
giant.
    In October, another tribunal lifted the market regulator's
ban on CEO Punit Goenka holding board positions in any Zee Group
companies, paving the way for him to head the new firm. However,
Sony said in September it would take a few more months to
complete the deal.
    The broadcaster's shares closed 1.2% higher ahead of results
on Thursday.   
        
  
        


($1 = 83.2760 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika
Syamnath)
 ((aleefjahan.cs@thomsonreuters.com;))