Network18 Media and Investments reported a 6 percent on-year rise in its consolidated operating revenue for FY23 to Rs 6,223 crore.
The weak advertising environment through the year impacted profitability despite a strong operating performance, the company said in a filing to exchanges. Profitability also suffered due to investments in new initiatives such as digital entertainment and sports, it added.
Operating EBITDA came in at Rs 137 crore for the financial year ended March 2023 as against Rs 1,080 crore in the previous year. EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. The operating margin for the year was at 2.2 percent against 18.4 percent a year ago.
The company posted a loss of Rs 84.27 crore for FY23 against a profit of Rs 207.54 crore a year back.
Investments in new initiatives had a negative contribution to the EBITDA of around Rs 170 crore in Q4 and around Rs 475 crore for the full year.
“While this fiscal was a year of consolidation as we took positive steps towards strengthening our position across segments, we look forward with a lot of excitement as we gear up for the next year,” said Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of Network18 in a statement.
Advertising Revenue
On a full-year basis, the company said, its consolidated advertising revenue was little changed despite weak advertising environment across the year and removal of Colors Rishtey from DD FreeDish.
Inflation softened marginally during the quarter, but economic sentiment continued to be weak, impacting the advertising revenue of the media and entertainment sector, Network18 said, adding that while staple categories saw improvement in demand, discretionary demand remained under pressure, especially in rural markets.
Consumer companies continued to be cautious on raising advertising spends as TV impressions were also down 6 percent YoY during the quarter. The advertising inventory of news segment declined 10 percent on-year, while it was flat for other genres, both during the quarter and for the full year.
Quarterly Performance
Despite the decline in inventory, Network18 said the News segment delivered growth in Q4 due to IP-led monetisation, leading to a QoQ improvement in EBITDA and margins. Entertainment business advertising revenue declined on a YoY basis.
For the quarter ended March FY23, the company has reported net loss of Rs 36.78 crore against profit of Rs 61.85 crore in same period last year. Consolidated revenue for the March FY23 quarter declined 8.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,483.7 crore.
On the operating front, the EBITDA came in at Rs 57.2 crore for Q4FY23, against Rs 265.8 crore in the same period last year. The operating margin stood at 3.9 percent against 16.4 percent in the same period.
“Colors, Viacom18’s Hindi GEC, delivered a strong performance as it continued to be a strong #2 channel with 20.2 percent viewership share. Entertainment network viewership share increased 20bps QoQ to 10.7 percent,” the company said.
TV News network continued to be the leader in key genres and had an all-India share of 11.9 percent. It was the number 1 primetime network in Hindi speaking markets with its bouquet of News18 India and other regional channels.
News18 India, CNN News18 and CNBC-TV18 maintained leadership in their genres during the quarter, the company added. Network18’s listed subsidiary TV18 owns and operates broadest network of 60 channels in India, spanning news, entertainment and sports genres and an OTT platform.
“One in every two Indians is a consumer of our broadcast content and we also cater to the global Indian diaspora through 21 international channels,” the company said.
Digital News and other initiatives
Digital news portfolio reaches 200 million-plus internet users every month, making it the second largest digital news/information platform by reach in the country. Driven by the constantly expanding coverage topics and innovative reporting formats, especially focused on mobile first internet users, the platform reaches around 45 percent of the category audience.
The non-English bouquet of websites was the number 1 in the country driven by genre-focused editorial offerings and hyperlocal coverage.
The digital segment delivered growth during the quarter driven by the strong performance of its video content across platforms. .
“The strong performance of the network, especially video content, helped deliver 8 percent revenue growth. EBITDA of the segment was impacted as the network ramped up teams across functions to strengthen editorial coverage and technology infrastructure, which contributed to majority of the increase in operating costs,” it said.
Moneycontrol saw a record number of total users on both the web and app platforms on the Budget Day. The app witnessed 3 million plus unique visitors and the website got around 10 million unique visitors. It has 6.25 million unique visitors in the business (non-news) category.
Moneycontrol Pro, the subscription-based offering, continued to scale up its user base, driven by a host of exclusive features offered to the subscribers. Moneycontrol app was the undisputed leader in its category with over 6 million MAUs.
Firstpost launched FP Vantage, a digital-first show that brings global news with an India perspective, which helped its YouTube channel grow to around 1 million subscribers in less than three months.
CNBCTV18.com continued to be the fastest growing platform in the digital portfolio and exited the year with the highest unique visitors, while News18.com’s vernacular portfolio became number 1 in the country, surpassing the number of monthly unique visitors of much older and established platforms.
Exhaustive coverage of key events like Hockey World Cup, Budget 2023, Elections, WPL and IPL 2023 helped drive growth in News18.com, Network18 said.
Viacom18
The Viacom18 has completed its transaction for strategic partnership with Reliance Industries, Bodhi Tree Systems and Paramount Global.
“JioCinema app becomes a part of Viacom18 portfolio, will help the company play a leading role in India’s transformation to a streaming-first approach. Viacom18 has now access to Rs 15,145 crore cash which will be instrumental in creating a compelling content offering for consumers across the country,” Network18 said.
The company further said Uday Shankar and James Murdoch would provide strategic and operational guidance to the company, leveraging their track-record of building iconic media businesses.
Uday Shankar has been appointed to the board of Viacom18, while Paramount Global will continue as a shareholder and supply its premium global content.
Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.