BENGALURU: Indian private FM player Entertainment Network (India) Limited (ENIL), which runs the Mirchi brand radio network in India,  reported 4.9 percent increase in Total Income from Operations (TIO) for the quarter ended 31 December 2016 (Q3-17, current quarter). The company reported consolidated revenue of Rs 150.65 crore for the current quarter as compared to Rs 143.57 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. Quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q), revenue in Q3-17 also increased 16.2 percent from Rs 129.65 crore in Q2-17.

The company’s consolidated profit after tax (PAT) in Q3-17 declined by 43.1 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) to Rs 16.42 crore (10.9 percent margin) as compared to Rs 28.86 crore (20.1 percent margin) and more than doubled (increased 2.18 times) q-o-q from Rs 8.05 crore (6.2 percent margin).

Company Speak

Commenting on the results, ENIL managing director and chief executive officer, Prashant Panday said, “We are poised on the cusp of a strong growth curve with the Love Network – 8 ‘Mirchi Love’ channels of our own and 3 ‘Ishq FM’ channels of TV Today – now fully operational. This network, along with the original ‘Mirchi’ network, now comprising 42 channels, offer advertisers the widest coverage across the country. With the government soon to announce the results of the second batch of auctions held recently, we will grow even bigger. These are exciting times!”

Let us look at the other numbers reported by ENIL

ENIL’s consolidated Earnings before Interest, Depreciation, Taxes and Amortisation (EBIDTA, operating profit) for Q3-17 declined 18.5 percent y-o-y to Rs 38.13 crore (25.3 percent margin)  from Rs 46.78 crore (32.6 percent margin) but increased 64.9 percent q-o-q from Rs 23.13 crore (26.6 percent margin) in the immediate trailing quarter.

ENIL total expense (TE) in Q3-17 increased 20.5 percent y-o-y to Rs 127.26 crore (84.5 percent of TIO) from Rs 105.64 crore (73.6 percent of TIO), and increased 5.6 percent q-o-q from Rs 120.50 crore (92.9 percent of TIO).

Programming and royalty expenses in the current quarter increased 43.6 percent y-o-y to Rs 6.85 crore (4.5 percent of TIO) from Rs 4.77 crore (3.3 percent of TIO and increased 13.7 percent q-o-q from Rs 6.03 crore (4.6 percent of TIO).

License fee in Q3-17 increased 28.4 percent y-o-y to Rs 8.82 crore (5.9 percent of TIO) from Rs 6.87 crore (4.8 percent of TIO) and increased 6.1 percent q-o-q from Rs 8.31 crore (6.4 percent of TIO).

Employee Benefit Expense (EBE) in Q3-17 at Rs 28.76 crore (19.1 percent of TIO) increased 13.9 percent y-o-y from Rs 25.5 crore (17.6 percent of TIO) and increased 7 percent q-o-q from Rs 26.86 crore (20.7 percent of TIO).

Marketing expense in Q3-17 at Rs 33.95 crore (22.5 percent of TIO) increased 6.8 percent y-o-y from Rs 31.78 crore (22.1 percent of TIO) and increased 4.2 percent q-o-q from Rs 32.58 crore (25.1 percent of TIO).

Other expenses in Q3-17 at Rs 34.14 crore (22.7 percent of TIO) increased 21.4 percent y-o-y from Rs 31.78 crore (19.6 percent of TIO) and increased 4.3 percent q-o-q from Rs 32.73 crore (25.3 percent of TIO).

ENIL won 17 stations in Phase 3 auctions. The company launched three new radio channels during the quarter viz. Lucknow, Pune and Kanpur. ENIL says that it intends to start operations at three out of the remaining six Phase III radio channels before the end of the financial year 2016-17.

Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee - Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
(a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
(b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.