ZEEL Q3 Results: Profit more than doubles to Rs 59 crore; revenue falls 3% YoY

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Revenue from operations during the third quarter fell 3% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 2,045 crore.

The company has reported an EBITDA of Rs 209 crore in the reporting quarter, which declined 43% YoY from Rs 366 crore in the same quarter of last year.

EBITDA margins, meanwhile, declined to 10.2% in the reporting period, compared with 17.4% a year ago.

The downslide in margins was due to increased competitive intensity leading to escalation in content cost and higher prices for acquiring rights for third-party content.
Further, higher investment intensity for building new capabilities such as digital, and lack of operating leverage due to slower revenue growth also had an impact on the margins.

Domestic advertising revenues came in at Rs 987 crore, down 3% YoY and 5% QoQ. Ad revenues were impacted by the Cricket World Cup during the third quarter.
ZEE said while Q3 saw some seasonal festive uptick, overall pace of ad environment recovery continues to be slow.

Subscription revenue growth during the quarter stood at 3% to Rs 921 crore, driven by a pick up in linear subscription revenue post the NTO 3.0 & ZEE5. The year-ago quarter's subscription revenues were aided by the recognition of Rs 59 crore amount from Siti Network.

Other sales and services revenue were down 36% YoY due to fewer movie releases during the quarter.

ZEE said it is confident to accelerate revenue growth as the advertising environment stabilizes. The company now expects an 8-10% CAGR in revenue going forward while seeing margins to be