NDTV declared revenues of Rs.492 crores against Rs.366 crores last year showing a 35% YoY Topline growth .
The Net profit for FY2008-09 stood at 143 crores against a Net loss of 189 crores last year.The bottomline was mainly supported by a stake sale during the fiscal,in a subsidiary NDTV Networks PLC, it’s UK based subsidiary.
The quarterly numbers for Mar-2009 were somewhat disappointing with stagnant topline of 123 crores and net loss of 160 crores.
The company has seriously curtailed special employee bonus which has shown 89% decline and stood at mere 95 lacs against 9 crore last year whereas the personnel expenses is up 60%.
The company is also mulling serious plans for cost cutting and there is also buzz that NDTV is going to reduce the number of personnel by over 20% in the immediate term to cut costs in its media division.
The company is currently sitting on a cash reserve of Rs. 240 crores which may not be significant looking at the bleeding in its profitability and may require additional bout of funding from its subsidiaries.
According to NDTV, the setting up of NDTV Imagine during the fiscal has contributed to the operating loss. The company claims top position for NDTV Good Times in the lifestyle genre. The Awani Channel in Malaysia has started reporting operating profits
It has also said that the pageviews on NDTV.com increased 180% during the last year. The future growth of NDTV will also significantly depend on its subsidiary NDTV Convergence which handles all its online properties.
Although this quarters results may slightly improve due to the flocking of advertisers to news channels as they look to capitalise on election frenzy this year.The future course of action at NDTV should be to gain maximum value from its numerous subsidiaries or go the TV 18 way by demerging services and unlocking maximum potential from it.
The company has already verified this by approving the demerger of business between two companies ;one group of companies would handle its media related business whereas its entertainment and allied business would be handled by others.
This will definitely help in securing funds for other businesses and make them self-funded reducing pressure on the parent company.
