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Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) has reported an increase of 70.24 percent in net profit to Rs 209.4 crore for the quarter ending September 30, 2024, as compared to Rs 123 crore for the same period last year.
The company’s advertising revenue declined 7.98 percent to Rs 901.7 crore in Q2FY25 against Rs 979.2 crore in the same period last year. Meanwhile, the subscription revenue grew 9.25 percent to Rs 969.9 crore against Rs 887.8 crore in Q2FY24, The Economic Times reported.
The earnings release indicates that while there are challenges in the broader advertising environment affecting revenue growth, the network is performing better than its peers in terms of ad revenue. ZEEL stated, “Macro ad environment softness has restrained our ability to drive advertising revenue growth. The ad revenue performance remains ahead of comparable industry peers while strengthening competitive positioning with 60 bps network viewership share gain in the last two quarters. It is also well positioned to capitalize on ad spend recovery.”
The company also shared that domestic advertising revenue for the quarter declined by 9 percent YoY, impacted by a muted ad spending environment in Q2. While ad spending is picking up with the onset of the festive season, sustained recovery remains the key. On the subscription side, the company stated that continued healthy growth was driven by both linear subscription revenue post NTO 3.0 & ZEE5.
The company’s total income declined by 18.94 percent to Rs 2034.4 crore against Rs 2509.6 crore in Q2FY24. The total expense of the company fell by 20.25 percent to Rs 1759 crore in Q2FY25 as compared to Rs2205.7 crore in Q2FY24. ZEEL’s operational cost declined by 25.53 percent to Rs 1061.5 crore as compared to Rs 1425.4 crore in Q2FY24. Similarly, the company’s employee benefits expense declined by 12.47 percent to Rs227.5 crore against Rs 259.9 crore in the same quarter of last year. The advertising and publicity expense dropped by 5.05 percent to Rs 259.3 crore in Q2FY25 as compared to Rs 273.1 crore in Q2FY24.
