News Broadcasting
Zee registers 16% net growth in PAT for FY 2002
Subhash Chandra’s Zee Telefilms today announced a revenue growth of 10 per cent, EBITDA growth of 30 per cent and profit after tax growth of 16 per cent for the year ending March 2002.
Zee has reported consolidated net profit of Rs 599.1 million for the fourth quarter ended 31 March, 2002 compared to Rs 307.8 million in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Total income during the January-March quarter rose to Rs 3.24 billion from Rs 3.19 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.
On a standalone basis, the company’s net profit during the three months to 31 March 2002 was Rs 211.30 million compared to Rs 472.90 million in the corresponding quarter last year. Total income during the reporting quarter was Rs 1.26 billion as against Rs 1.36 billion in the corresponding quarter a year earlier.
For the fiscal year ended 31 March, 2002, the company has posted a net profit of Rs 1.04 billion compared to Rs 1.38 billion in the fiscal year ended 31 March, 2001. Total income for the fiscal year 2001/02 was Rs 4.70 billion as against Rs 4.35 billion in 2001.
Zee declared consolidated revenues of Rs 11.409 billion, 10 per cent over FY2001. The increase in revenues it ascribed largely to subscription revenues, which recorded a sharp jump of 65 per cent to Rs 3.369 billion.
AD REVENUES: On the ad revenue front, Zee declared a decline of 7 per cent to Rs 6.402 billion. It’s still far better than what one may have assumed would be the case considering that Zee’s ad revenues are still facing a hard time as its programming, some of which has been appreciated as being of high quality has still to make a major mark on the ratings charts. Referring to its efforts to refurbish the content side of its operations, Zee said that during the quarter, the overall programming cost of the network went up due to write-offs on old inventory.
PAY REVENUES: Zee went pay last year. Zee TV and Zee News, two of the leading channels of the networkwent pay in June 2001. The Joint venture with Turner also became operational during the quarter. As a result, the domestic pay revenues of the network increased to Rs 359 million during the quarter.
The investments in regional pay channels under brand “Alpha” is an important strategic building block for the network, since regional language channels will be a significant growth area in the future, targeting a new, yet complimentary market segment that is currently not being addressed by other major broadcasters, the company says.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
