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| Zee Entertainment: Unhappy ending |
| Shobhana Subramanian / Mumbai Apr 23, 2009, 00:34 IST |
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With advertising revenues coming off by about 7 per cent, Zee Entertainment has turned in a disappointing set of numbers for the March 2009 quarter. Although subscription sales were up, total revenues fell to Rs 513.74 crore. As a result, although costs stayed more or less flat, the operating profit fell to Rs 122 crore.
 With the outlook for advertising revenues not too bright in a weak economic environment, 2009-10 could be another difficult year for Zee given that it is now the number three player in the Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) genre. Advertising in the June 2009 quarter will be impacted somewhat because of the IPL tournament and the elections.
The Zee management says it does not want to spend on programming simply to chase rating points and has taken three programmes off the air because they weren’t doing well. It claims to have seen an increase in the channel share in the last quarter and currently 32 of it shows are in the top100.
Zee plans to focus on trimming costs —including selling and distribution expenses, which were up sharply last year. The ZeeNext channel, which was posting huge losses, it says, is in ‘suspension mode’. While Zee’s revenues grew around 18.5 per cent last year to Rs 2,173 crore,the growth this year could be lower.
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