News Broadcasting
TVTN Q3 net profit up 14.12 % YoY
MUMBAI: For Aroon Purie’s TV Today Network (TVTN), the second fortnight of January started with one bang and ended with another. Fortunately for the company, both resonated with positive vibrations. After listing on the BSE on 16 January at a premium of 132 per cent over its issue price of Rs 95, the media hotshot has come up with a positive third quarter report card.
Q3 net profit up 14.12 per cent YoY to Rs 101 million
Q3 revenues up 23.68 per cent YoY to Rs 415.8 million
TVTN that owns and operates popular news channel Aaj Tak has posted a healthy growth of 14.12 per cent in its third quarter net profit over the corresponding quarter in the previous fiscal. The net profit for the quarter ending 31 December 2003 stands at Rs 101 million vis-?-vis Rs 88.5 million in the third quarter of 2002. Aggregate revenues for the quarter stand at Rs 415.8 million, which is up 23.68 per cent year on year (YoY) from Rs 336.2 million in the same quarter last fiscal.
Taking away from the profits is a 40.25 per cent YoY increase in TVTN’s total expenditure, which was largely because TVTN’s English news channel, Headlines Today that was launched in March 2003 was moved to a new studio in December 2003. The aggregate expenditure stands at Rs 227.5 million in Q3 2004 from Rs 162.2 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
The over 40 per cent YoY rise in expenditure is drawn from the hike in the company’s production and transmission costs, which shot up 68 per cent to Rs 49.6 million in Q3 2004 over Rs 29.5 million in Q3 2003. The company also clocked a 40 per cent YoY rise in other expenses.
For the nine months ended 31 December 2003, TVTN notched up net profits of Rs 226.8 million against Rs 194.4 million in the previous corresponding period. This translates into a 16.67 per cent hike in net profit. The company clocked aggregate revenues of Rs 978.8 million for the nine months ended 31 December 2003, which is up 25.63 per cent from Rs 779.1 million in the corresponding previous period.
Basic and diluted earnings per share for the third quarter stands at Rs 2.10 vis-?-vis second quarter’s Rs 1.91.
The TV Today scrip debuted on the stock exchanges on 16 January in a correctional market phase with an impressive high of Rs 225 in the very first minute of commencing trade. However, in today’s date, the stock has pared down 19.19 per cent to Rs 146.55 from its first day’s close of Rs 181.35. A cross section of market analysts believe that the stock is still over weight at these levels and will settle at Rs 150-170 levels once the initial excitement over the stock settles down.
Note: The results declared are unaudited third quarter financial results.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
