Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) on Thursday reported a nearly 9% year-on-year (y-o-y) rise in consolidated net profit to `123 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2023 (Q2FY24), as strong demand for its movies and a pickup in subscriptions eclipsed a decline in advertising revenue. This beat street estimates of `114 crore for the period.
The media firm’s consolidated revenue rose 20.5% y-o-y to `2,438 crore in Q2FY24, beating Bloomberg consensus estimates of `2,167 crore by a wide margin.
On Thursday, ZEEL’s scrip on BSE closed trading 1% higher at `262.8 apiece. The company, which owns TV channels including Zee TV and Zee Cinema, posted an 8% rise in its subscription revenue on a y-o-y 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 ad revenue declined 2.1% for the period.
Zee’s total expenses rose 23% during the September quarter due to higher content costs in movies and investment in ZEE5, its streaming platform. This hurt earnings before interest tax (Ebitd) margins which fell 200 basis points to 13.6% for the period.
Ebitda, however, rose 5.7% YoY to Rs 333 crore for the quarter, which compares favourably with street estimates of `251 crore for Q2.