by NR INDRAN / INT
Network18 Group today announced its results for the quarter ending June 30, 2011. The „Scheme of Arrangement‟ between Television Eighteen India Limited, Network18 Media & Investments Limited, IBN18 Broadcast Limited and other group companies and their respective Shareholders and Creditors announced on July 7, 2010 was completed during the quarter.

The Network18 Group, as envisaged by the Scheme, has now been re-organised into two entities  – TV18 and Network18 and the ensuing release is in accordance with the new group structure.Key Highlights for Q1 2011-12

Consolidated revenues for the first quarter of the year 2011-12 stood at Rs.  363  crores, up  14%, compared to the corresponding quarter last year, 2010-11.

Our Television Business (News and Entertainment) turned in a steady performance as reported revenues stood at Rs. 266 crores for the quarter, a growth of 13% over the corresponding quarter last year (on a proforma basis).

Our Digital Content and eCommerce Business grew to Rs. 52 crores for the quarter growing 23% over the same quarter last year (on a proforma basis).

We maintained our market leadership positions across all our business segments.

– Television News and Entertainment – 6/9 TV channels were No 1 for the quarter.

– Digital and eCommerce – Network 18 is the largest Indian Digital Media company globally and in India as per the Comscore World Report  – June 2011 and our eCommerce properties exhibited strong growth momentum building on their market leadership.

Announcing the results, Raghav Bahl, Managing Director, Network18 said that, “Network18 has turned in another solid quarter across our Television and Digital businesses. I am particularly pleased to note that our eCommerce portfolio is exhibiting strong consumer traction and growth. It is pertinent to note that the global macro economic environment is volatile and challenging; while there may be some near term uncertainty, I believe that the long term Indian growth story remains intact.  ”

Commenting on the results for the quarter, Haresh Chawla, Group CEO, said, “We have delivered steady growth across all our businesses and maintained their market leading positions. Going forward, we expect some near term softness in advertising revenues driven by domestic and global factors. For the year, we expect continued profitable growth in our existing operations offset by some investments in building out our portfolio of television properties to further consolidate their market position.”

Television Business

Steady quarter with consolidated revenues at Rs. 266 crores and an operating profit of Rs. 24 crores.

Consolidated Revenues were up 13% from Rs. 237 crores against the corresponding quarter last year on a proforma basis.

Operating Profits rose to Rs. 24 crores during the quarter, up 17% against the corresponding quarter

last year on a proforma basis

a. Business News Operations delivered a steady performance against the backdrop of volatile markets and revenues increased by Rs. 4 crores (Q1FY12 over Q1FY11).

– Q1 FY12 revenues on a reported basis stood at Rs. 68 crores, up 6.5% against Rs. 64 crores against the corresponding quarter last year. Operating profit  stood at  Rs.  16 crores in Q1 FY12.

– Our Business News Channels  – CNBC TV18 and CNBC Awaaz continued to be market leaders with 53% market share during the quarter.

b. In the General News Operations, CNN IBN maintained its leadership position as the channel of choice for English audiences in a competitive market.

– Q1 FY12 revenues on a reported basis stood at Rs. 62 crores, up 14% against Rs. 54 crores in Q1 FY11. The operations broke even during the quarter.

– CNN IBN with its special programming like „Battle of the States‟ during the Assembly Elections

for the five states, „Cricketainment‟ during IPL 4 and the CNN IBN „Young Leader Awards‟ in addition to its regular programming was the market leader in the genre.

– IBN7 launched targeted shows like „Campus Calling‟ and „IPL ka King Kaun‟ and had strong ratings traction.

– IBN Lokmat celebrated „Maharashtra Day‟ with a host of well received special programmes.

Network18 Q1FY12 Investor Update – August 11, 2011

II. Entertainment Business – Viacom18 continued on a steady trajectory in Q1 FY12.

– Q1 FY11 revenues on a reported basis stood at Rs.  273 crores, up  18% against Rs.  238 crores in the corresponding quarter last year. Our operating profit stood at Rs. 18 crores for the quarter.

– Colors turned in a strong performance in the Hindi GEC space during the quarter, emerging as the market leader in prime time (1930-2400 hrs). The channel continued to deliver strong ratings across programming categories: Reality, Movies and Fiction. Our existing fiction shows continued to rule the charts and the new fiction and reality launches have met with success.

– MTV and Nick maintained their market leadership in the youth and kids genres respectively.

MTV India is the only youth channel in the Top 15 channels in India and has also been successful in building the largest youth community on the digital platform. Nick continued to capture the imagination of kids across the country with its multi platform innovative launches like „Pick a Trick‟.

– Our subscription revenues are expected to demonstrate a  steady uptrend over the year. SUN18 Media Services, our distribution arm, continues to make headway in negotiating contracts with DTH companies and cable companies/operators.

– Viacom18 Motion Pictures released three successful movies in Q1 FY2012 : „Pyaar ka anchnama‟  – a new age youth film, „Shaitan‟ under  the Tipping Point Films brand and  the popular film from Paramount Pictures „Transformers – Dark of the Moon‟.

III. Digital Content and eCommerce

Network18 is the largest Indian Digital Media company both in India and the World in terms of unique visitors as per Comscore. Our revenues for the quarter for the segment stood at Rs. 52 crores, registering a growth of 23%, over the corresponding quarter last year on a proforma basis.

a. Web18 recorded revenues of Rs. 24 crores, a growth of   31%    over the corresponding quarter last year on a proforma basis.

– Moneycontrol.com and In.com, continued to be market leaders in their categories – financial portal and horizontal respectively. Moneycontrol.com launched live BSE feeds and announcements during the quarter in addition to the existing NSE feeds and announcements.

India‟s first 24X7 online and multi-platform reality show MTV Crunch was launched on in.com.

– We launched Firstpost.com, exclusive online news and views website that is truly digital and accessible across platforms and devices. Firstpost seeks to co-create news in partnership with the reader/viewer/ listener.

– Bookmyshow.com continued on a strong revenue growth trajectory and deepened its association with IPL4.

b. Newswire 18 delivered revenues of Rs. 11 crores for the quarter.

c. HomeShop18 continued to scale rapidly across all key operating parameters continuing to deliver ‘customer service excellence’ across all touch points. HomeShop18 recorded revenues of Rs.  17 crores for the quarter, a growth of 13% over the corresponding quarter last year on a proforma basis.

– Orders executed during the quarter grew by over 28% over the last quarter.

– The cumulative reach for the HomeShop18 Television channel at the end of the quarter was 10 million (as per TAM). It also became available on Videocon d2h and Sun Direct DTH platforms. Maintained leadership position in the TV home shopping space with 57%+ market share and a GRP of 1.3+ as per TAM.

– www.homeshop18.com which was re-launched in FY2011 turned in a great performance and established itself as No. 2 ecommerce sites in India as per the Comscore data. In our quest to further enhance customer experience, we launched a new user interface and recommendation engine and introduced many personalization features.

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