Zee Entertainment Enterprises reported consolidated profit at Rs 275.8 crore for the March 2021 quarter, driven by strong operating performance. The company had a loss of Rs 766.7 crore in the same quarter last year, according to moneycontrol.com.

Consolidated revenue increased 0.8 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,965.8 crore in Q4 FY21, with advertisement revenue growing 8.1 percent to Rs 1,122.96 crore and subscription revenue rising 8.4 percent to Rs 803.35 crore during the quarter, the company in its BSE filing.

“Domestic advertising revenue growth of 8.9 percent YoY driven by the continued recovery in macro advertising environment. Like to like growth (excluding reclassification of music subscription revenue) of 5.6 percent and 5.8 percent for the quarter and year respectively, was primarily driven by ZEE5,” said Zee Entertainment.

Other sales and services for the quarter at Rs 40 crore declined 76.9 percent due to continued impact of pandemic on theatrical revenues and reclassification of music revenue to subscription, the company added.

Other income at Rs 18.57 fell 54.3 percent compared to year-ago quarter impacted profitability in Q4, the moneycontrol.com report stated.

Zee said its all-India TV network share improved to 18.9 percent at the end of March 2021, from 18.3 percent in March 2020 and 18.2 percent in December 2020, led by FTA and two channels in South Indian markets.

Numbers missed analysts’ expectations.

Profit was estimated at Rs 337 crore on revenue of Rs 2,000 crore for the quarter, according to the average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

In the COVID year, FY21, consolidated profit surged 52 percent to Rs 800.05 crore, but revenue fell 4.9 percent to Rs 7,729.92 crore compared to previous year.

At the operating level, EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) stood at Rs 540.8 crore for March quarter against EBITDA loss of Rs 283.9 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal, with margin at 27.5 percent, beating analysts’ estimates.

“Programming cost (excluding one-time inventory write-off of Rs 259.8 crore in Q4FY20) declined by 19.2 percent during the quarter, primarily due to lower accelerated inventory amortisation this quarter,” said Zee in a statement.

Zee further said, “Advertising & promotion, and other expenses (excluding one-time provision of Rs 343.3 crore in Q4FY20) declined by 14.1 percent YoY during the quarter.”

Zee Entertainment approved equity dividend of Rs 2.50 per share for the financial year 2020-21.