Viacom18 turns profitable in Q3

MUMBAI: Viacom18, the general entertainment business of TV18 Broadcast, turned profitable in the fiscal-third quarter ended 31 December on a sharp rise in revenues and a fall in loss from new operations.

The entertainment broadcaster had a net profit of Rs 34 million in the third quarter against a loss Rs 532 million a year earlier.

Viacom18?s operating revenues rose 50 per cent in the third quarter to Rs 4.73 billion from Rs 3.16 billion a year earlier, while operating expenses rose by a slower 25 per cent to Rs 4.43 billion from Rs 3.51 a year earlier.

Viacom18 reported an operating profit of Rs 304 million in the third quarter against operating loss of Rs 355 million, as its motion pictures operations had an operating profit of Rs 95 million against Rs 4 million a year earlier. The quarter saw the release of ?Son of Sardar? among other movies. For the nine months ended 31 December, motion pictures had an operating loss of Rs 193 million.

B Saikumar, Group CEO at TV18 group, said, "The brands across mass entertainment, English and factual entertainment, kids, music continue to grow and hold leadership positions. Importantly, all our programming initiatives in prime time and the weekend have paid off rather well on Colors."

In the quarter under review, Colors climbed to the No. 1 spot in the Hindi GEC genre for multiple weeks. The big-ticket shows included Bigg Boss and India?s Got Talent.

Profit from continuing channels

The company?s operating profit from continuing business, excluding new operations, was Rs 432 million in the third quarter against Rs 391 million a year earlier.

The channels falling under the ?continuing business? segment include Colors (flagship Hindi GEC), MTV, Nick and Vh1.

Loss from new channel operations

Viacom18?s operating loss from new operations (which includes launch of Nick Jr, Nick Teen and Comedy Central) narrowed to Rs 129 million from Rs 203 million a year earlier.