TV Monthly Monitor – July’21 – STAR leads GECs; Zee posts MoM gains, regionally

Listed broadcasters: Overall performance

Zee Group: Regional plays strong, GECs continue to struggle with Zee Anmol the only hope

The Zee Group’s performance was mixed in July 2021, as flagship GECs – i.e. Zee Anmol and Zee TV – failed to feature in the top-10 channel list. However, Zee Telugu entered the top-10 with 7.8% viewership share. On region-wise performance, the Zee group continued to dominate in Karnataka (led by Zee Kannada), Assam/North East (led by Zee Bangla), and in all other major regions, it was followed by the STAR group that stood second. Zee witnessed gains across markets for its regional channels, except in the Marathi genre that has continued to struggle since the past 10 months versus STAR Pravah. However, rankings across regions have remained stable, except in the North, where Zee Anmol replaced STAR Utsav (UP and Uttarakhand). Zee witnessed strong gains for regional channels in some key geographies – Zee Bangla gained 504bp MoM in Assam/North East/Sikkim regions as also 478bp MoM in the West Bengal region. Zee Kannada saw 331bp MoM gains in the Karnataka region. Zee Keralam entered the top-5 with 7.8% viewership share, and Zee Anmol gained 426bp MoM within the Madhya Pradesh (MP)/Chhattisgarh regions, and 232bp MoM in the Rajasthan region. Zee Tamil gained a stellar 508bp MoM share in the Tamil Nadu/Pondicherry region.

SunTV: Flagship channel lags; movie channels continue to ride on Wave II lock-down momentum

Sun TV, the flagship channel, maintained its top spot, however lagged recovery with viewership share of 38.5% in Tamil Nadu/Pondicherry market (Tamil genre), down 268bp MoM, still lower versus its 40%+ share, pre-Covid. However, the overall Southern region saw a 60bp MoM improvement to 41.8% share. Sun TV Group’s other movie offering in the Tamil genre (Tamil Nadu/Pondicherry region) gained 100bp MoM to 12.5% share, on continued Wave II lock-down momentum for the movies genre. In the Karnataka region (Kannada genre), Udaya TV and Udaya Movies witnessed 148bp MoM/272bp MoM viewership dip, respectively, slipping below STAR Suvarna in the region. In Andhra Pradesh/Telangana (Telugu genre), Gemini TV remained in the fourth spot with 50bp MoM viewership gains to 13.4% share. Sun Bangla failed to feature in the top-5 channels in the eastern region.

Our Rating & TP on Broadcasters

We recommend Buy on Zee Entertainment Enterprises with a TP of lNR 300 based on 16x September 2022 earnings after factoring in Zee5 valuations and worst-case scenario of write-offs on the balance sheet. We recommend Reduce on SUNTV with a TP of INR 560 based on 15x one- year forward P/E. We recommend Buy on TVTN with a TP of lNR 370 on 10.5x one-year forward P/E.

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“This initiative will empower subscribers to pay online and subscribe to the channels they want to watch and get it activated on their TV sets in real-time without any delay. Without needing to undertake any software development, LMOs can approach Mobiezy for their pre-built and pre-integrated solution that uses NXTDigital’s news APIs and can be up and running with their own mobile apps within just a few days.”

RU Ediriwira, Group CTO, NXTDigital Limited

“With the launch of Partnership for Growth 3.0 we intend to expand our network with 40 new NXTHUBs, each offering up to 650 live TV channels and broadband. Our efforts are focused on harnessing the convergence of technologies, developing robust apps and creating new business models that will help the overall ecosystem, delivering the best experience to our subscribers. We hope to achieve a stronger foothold in the rural regions of the country and grow our subscriber base.”

N.K. Rouse, COO, NXT Digital Ltd

“One of the key principles of the Hinduja Group is ‘Partnership for Growth’. After 2.0 saw the launch of HITS to connect LMOs in even the most remote locations through the only satellite-based cable TV platform in India; 3.0 focuses not just on strengthening the overall ecosystem we have built, but harnessing the convergence of technologies – to be delivered through a national network of NXTHUBs. Video and broadband are only the beginning of the digital highway of services that we have developed for roll-out backed by a robust suite of innovative apps developed by service providers exclusively for our LMOs and subscribers.”

Vynsley Fernandes, MD & CEO, NXTDigital Limited

“Wireline broadband is becoming ever more important not only in connecting homes across the country but also small to large enterprises-to the digital economy. The NXTHUBs will be the perfect point-of-presence to offer broadband services to cater to these consumer needs.”

Yugal Kishore Sharma CEO, ONEOTT Intertainment Limited

Amazing and grim battle for survival. Guess it will end up in Supreme Court. All that NCLT asked Zee to do was to file a reply to Invesco petition for a EGM. Now this is getting too serious. So far Invesco has been hammered for demanding an EGM. What is Zee upto? Ofcourse my lawyer community knows better!

Ashok Mansukhani, Corporate Law and Media Law Advocate at Ashokmansukhani Associates

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