Broadcasting & Cable TV company Network18 Media & Investments announced Q3FY24 results:
Revenue Highlights:
- Consolidated revenue for the quarter decreased by 4% year-over-year (YoY) to Rs. 1,774 crore, primarily due to lower Movie Studio revenue.
- Standalone revenue for TV News (TV18) increased by 23% YoY, driven by advertising revenue growth across clusters.
- Entertainment (Viacom18 AETN18 Indiacast) revenue declined by 12% YoY, largely due to lower Movie and Sports segment revenues.
Operational Performance:
- TV news network maintained strong positions with CNBC TV18 at over 80% viewership share, News18 India at 13.8% evening primetime viewership share, and CNN News18 at a 33.2% viewership share.
- Network18's digital properties such as News18.com and Moneycontrol maintained strong engagement metrics.
- Viacom1 8's Colors channel ended the year with over 200 GRPs, marking a significant increase since the fiscal start.
Digital and OTT Growth:
- JioCinema has continued to consolidate its position as a leading OTT platform in India, offering an extensive catalog of entertainment and sports content.
Merger Update:
- Network18 announced a scheme for merging TV18 and e-Eighteen.com (Moneycontrol) which is expected to create a large platform-agnostic media conglomerate.
Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of Network18, said, “We are pleased to have announced the merger of our TV and Digital news businesses, which will not only help us serve our consumers better and realize synergies across different segments, but it will also give a unique opportunity to all our shareholders to participate in the media business of the group through a single listed entity. All our businesses are gathering momentum at the right time as the economic outlook continues to improve against the backdrop of a resilient performance by the Indian economy. As we have stated in the past, we believe that the Indian media sector has a long runway for growth and our strong positions across segments give us a perfect launchpad to capture this opportunity.”