Mumbai: NXTDIGITAL today announced the results for the year ending 31st March 2020. The company clocked a significant turnaround across all financial and business parameters – driven by the robust performance of its media business through IMCL, its media subsidiary.

Financial Performance

On a consolidated basis, revenues grew by 65% over FY19, from `704.62cr to `1,162.10cr; its Operating EBIDTA grew significantly to `218.01cr against a loss of `72.61cr in the previous fiscal. NXTDIGITAL also saw an impressive turnaround in its PAT at `110.05cr; up from a loss of `303.43cr in FY19.

The Board of Directors today recommended a dividend of 50% of the `10 face value of each Equity Share, which works out to Rs. 5 per share.

The main growth driver has been the performance of its media business through IMCL, which is one of India’s premier integrated digital platforms – delivering services over digital cable and satellite as well as broadband. The media business has now recorded profits consistently for the last four quarters on the back of robust business performance.

Mainstream TV OTT was launched when the world of Malayalam movie goers barely had any options to watch and enjoy movies. Our first Direct to Digital Premier Musical Chair had an immense reception across Malayalam speaking audiences, especially at gulf countries and the number of viewers from Angola, Libiya, New Zealand etc. shows the reach of Mainstream Tv app.

Mainstream TV is available on iOS, Android, Fire TV and Chromecast.

Musical Chair enquires the hidden truth behind death. The uniqueness in the theme is what makes Musical Chair different. Death still remains an unanswered question to the ever genius human race. Vipin Atlee is giving a new definition to death which is quite simple and understandable even for a normal audience. Apart from being the director, Atlee made memorable acting sequences as well in the movie.

BENGALURU: Indian content creator, aggregator distributor, specifically in the media and entertainment industry and now television broadcaster, Shemaroo  Entertainment Ltd (Shemaroo) reported 39.7 percent drop in consolidated operating revenue at Rs 86.2 crore for the quarter ended 30 June 2020 (Q1 2020, quarter or period under review) as compared to the Rs 143.03 crore  for corresponding year ago quarter Q1 2020. Consolidated operating revenue for Q4 2020 was Rs 122.74 crore. However, the company reported a lower consolidated loss of Rs 12.81 crore for the period under review as compared to the loss of Rs 14.07 crore for the immediate trailing quarter (Q4 2020). The company had reported consolidated profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 16.38 crore in Q1 2020.

Shemaroo revenue from traditional media in Q1 2021 declined 44.5 percent to Rs 52.3 crore from Rs 94.30 crore in Q1 2020. Revenue from traditional media in Q4 2020 was Rs 76.9 crore. Shemaroo’s revenue from digital media also fell in Q1 2021 to Rs 33.9 crore from Rs 48.7 crore in Q1 2020 (y-o-y decline of 30.4 percent) and Rs 45.8 crore (q-o-q decline of 26 percent) in Q4 2020. However, contribution to revenuefrom digital media has been increasing over time says the company. In Q1 2020, digital media revenue’s contribution to overall revenue was 34.06 percent, which increased to 39.33 percent in Q1 2021. In FY 2020, the contribution of revenue from digital media to operating revenue grew to 38.55 percent from 16.94 percent in FY 2016. Please refer to the figure below:

A month back, Hindi news channel News Nation launched a show ‘Desh Ki Bahes’, which fostered issues raised by the ‘aam janata’ through various platforms like Facebook, Twitter, phone, WhatsApp, SMS, etc. The show is aired on weekdays 8:30 pm-10:00 pm.

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The show discussed and debated topics such as coronavirus, Rafale, India-China tension, Rajasthan political crisis, Ram temple in Ayodhya and Sushant Singh Rajput’s death with politicians, journalists, experts and also their counterparts from across the border in Pakistan.

The channel did a marketing campaign of the show focusing mainly in the HSM region and a post evaluation of the activity showed significant conversions, as per BARC data. Within a short span of time, the show witnessed a massive growth in social media interactions with the Facebook page and Twitter handles getting whopping 1000% + jump on its base figures.

New Delhi: Floated in January this year, the Draft Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020, proposed by The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has brought in, a slew of amendments to the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.

Over the decades, the broadcast industry has transformed significantly, by the dint of technological disruptions and changes in consumer behavior, making the need for such provisions almost ineludible.

In fact, a multitude of amendments has made their way in the year 2006, 2009, 2012, etc., along with the recent uplinking& downlinking guidelines, keeping in mind the regime shift from analog to digital. However, the need for new amendments is now necessitated, especially keeping in mind the expansion and penetration of internet & smartphones, the arrival of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the rapid growth of Digital Medium, and the current hyper-competitive environment. In fact, the COVID-19 crisis has further exacerbated the situation for the industry.

Howbeit, the Draft Amendment Bill refuses to address few seismic changes that shape & define the industry as it exists today – calling for certain reassessments to establish equitability across mediums & genres.

Week 29 of BARC Ratings saw the Top 5 channels in Malayalam genre witness changes in the positions. According to BARC Ratings of South GEC for week 29, the following are the ranking of various Regional GECs.

Malayalam:     

Asianet leads the Malayalam GEC category followed by Surya TV that moved up and secured the 2nd spot this week. Mazhavil Manorama on the 3rd spot and for the last two spots we have previous week’s 2nd spot holder Flowers TV and new entrant Asianet Movies.

BENGALURU: The digital TV services segment from Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel Ltd (Airtel), Airtel Digital TV, which provides direct to home (DTH) satellite television services, reported growth of 0.8 percent in operating revenue at Rs 744.8 crore for the quarter ended 30 June 2020 (Q1 2020, quarter or period under review) as compared to Rs 738.9 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year Q1 2019 (y-o-y). However, this is not a true oranges-oranges comparison, since as of 1 March 2020, Airtel Digital TV services has implemented new guidelines of NCF (Network Carriage Fees) under the new tariff order (NTO) from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The company says in a media release that Airtel Digital TV revenue witnessed a growth of 9.3 percent y-o-y on an underlying basis, on the back of strong customer additions.

Airtel Digital TV operating profit for the quarter under review declined 23.5 percent to Rs 276.2 crore (37.1 percent of operating revenue) as compared to Rs 361.2 crore (48.9 percent of operating revenue) for Q1 2020. Airtel reported 1.3 percent growth in Assets to Rs 3,462 crore for Q1 2021 from Rs 3,417.4 crore in Q1 2020. However, Assets in Q1 2021 were 12.9 percent lower than the Rs 3,794.9 crore in the immediate trailing quarter (Q4 2020). The segment’s liabilities for Q1 2021 grew 11.6 percent to Rs 4000.5 crore from Rs 3,585.2 crore in Q1 2020. Liabilities in the quarter under review were however 3 percent lower than the Rs 4,122.4 crore in the immediate trailing quarter Q4 2020.

Mumbai: The TAM AdEx-Television & Digital Advertising Report for period Jan-Jun’20*, the main focus of the fifth report highlights 3 categories that are Television Advertising, Digital Advertising and TV and Digital – A Comparison. Here we focus on the: Digital Advertising and TV and Digital – A Comparison

Advertising on Digital Medium            

The resurgence in June 2020, the quantum of Advertisers & Brands in June 2020, surpasses avg. count of Jan-Mar’20.

Ad Insertions on Digital: Mar-Jun’20 vs. Mar-Jun’19

Drop-in ad Insertions on Digital narrowing in Jun’20 compared to Jun’19, for Mar-May’20 it witnessed on an avg. 48% ad insertion drop compared to Mar-May’19.

Mumbai: The Madras High Court has granted News18 Tamil Nadu an interim injunction restraining the self-proclaimed vlogger Mr Maridhas from publishing any message, picture or graphical representation that is defamatory, derogatory or in the nature of a threat against News18 Tamil Nadu channel. Honorable Justice C V Karthikeyan, hearing a civil suit by us, has also directed Mr Maridhas to remove the derogatory videos pertaining to News18 Tamil Nadu or its employees.

Mr Maridhas has posted several videos on YouTube that contain false news, baseless allegations and defamatory remarks relating not only to our channel, but also the personal life of our employees.

He not only openly named several persons associated with our organisation but also discussed their private relationships drawing untrue, unnecessary and defamatory inferences from the same. The videos were posted by Mr. Maridhas as a part of his active propaganda and scheme of defaming us, tarnishing our credibility and unlawfully interfering with our independence and functioning. He went to the extent of using forged and fabricated emails to further his propaganda of spreading fake news against our channel and the employees of the Network18 group.

In the GEC genre, Hindi GEC has garnered 23% share of ad volumes followed by Tamil GEC with 13% of share and Malayalam with 11% of share, as per the TAM AdEx-Television Advertising Report VIII for period Apr-Jul’20 (data is till 25 July).
Kannada and Bengali GECs with 10% share, Telugu and Marathi GEC with 9% and 7% shares respectively were among the top seven genres that together registered 51% rise in advertising volumes in Week 30 as compared to Week 23. The report also states that GECs registered meager but steady ad volume growth in the last 4 weeks; between Week 27 and Week 30. The ad volumes rose to 2,173 hours in Week 30 from 1,442 hours in Week 23. 

In the Hindi GEC genre, the average ad volumes per day on Hindi GEC saw a marginal rise of 5% in July’20 compared to June’20.  As per the TAM data, a continuous rise in ad volumes was observed from Week 24 onwards with a peak in Week 26. Also, comparing Week 30 to Week 23, the ad volumes grew by 50% on Hindi GEC channels. The ad volumes hours grew to 482 in Week 30 as compared to 322 in Week 23.