The Ronnie Screwvalla-promoted UTV Software Communications Ltd‘s financials are out and it has made a net profit of Rs 160 million rupees on a total revenue of Rs 1,510 million for the year ending March, industry sources say.

Sources have been able to extrapolate the following information: For the year ending March 2001, the group‘s media revenues were Rs 1,510 million.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were Rs 320 million, with a profit before tax (PBT) of Rs 200 million and a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 160 million.

The revenue represents a 28 per cent jump over the last year, EBITDA a jump of 151 per cent and PAT an increase of 167 per cent.

From this year, they follow an accounting policy of 100 per cent write-off, which further made a deviation of profits of Rs 35 million. UTV follows a five-year write-off policy on all their plant, machinery and equipment. The group‘s accounts are audited by Arthur Andersen.

Their prospectus draft and research report show a paid up capital of Rs 120 million, therefore their earnings per share (EPS) in March 2001 would be Rs3.40.

The group‘s revenues and net profits come from multiple streams, broadly broken up as: - TV Content: 40 per cent - Ads / Dubbing / Inflight / Live Events: 15 per cent - Motion Pictures: 12 per cent - Post Production: 20 per cent - Animation: 10 per cent - Air time sales and distribution: 3 per cent.

The Group has over 400 clients. The top 10 clients represent only 21 per cent of the revenue stream. Therefore their client dependency on any one single client is not too high. Of the 400 clients, 45 are international and global clients and export and international business represents 18 to 20 per cent of their annualised figures.

UTV Software Communications is made up of United Television (UTV) and four subsidiaries - Vijay TV, UTV Singapore, UTV Malaysia and UTV Interactive.

Private broadcasters just don‘t seem to have anything going for them on the Doordarshan front. Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network (SAB) and Cinevista Communications, both major suppliers of software for DD1, have blamed lack of demand from advertisers for the poor results the companies registered in the financial year ended 31 March 2001.

While SAB managed to stave off losses (net profit Rs 103.7 million down 40.51 per cent from last year‘s RS 174.3 million), Cinevista communications has posted a net loss of RS 119.9 million.

SAB‘s total income stood at RS 927.9 million as against RS 400.1 million in the financial year 2000. A statement put out by SAB says: "During the year under review, the policy of Doordarshan related to additional spot buys on various programmes has put heavy financial burden on the company. The company from time to time, has put forth its case with Doordarshan for rationalisation of commercial terms and for withdrawal of additional spot buys."

As the matter could not be resolved till 31 March 2001, the company has decided as prudent accounting practice to charge the same to the P&L account, which has resulted in reduction of profitability."

Cinevista Communications fared far worse, with a net loss of RS 119.9 million in only the first year of its listing on the bourses. Last year, it recorded a net profit of RS 90 million.

Cinevista‘s net sales stood at RS 396.7 million while the cost of production and telecast stood at RS 394.1 million.

It blamed the results as being due to the erosion of viewership of Doordarshan. Continuing downturn in demand for air time on DD amongst advertisers has led to erosion in selling volumes and selling rates, it said. As a consequence over 18,000 seconds of air time remains unsold on the various programmes that were telecast on DD.

Cinevista also wrote off all the expenses related to the weekly game show Knock-Out, which was scheduled to be telecast on DD-1 from 28 January 28. The show never went on air and Cinevista has hauled DD to court over this matter. A writ petition for the same is pending in the high court in New Delhi.