Dish TV posts net profit of Rs 75 cr in June quarter, revenue slips 10%

Direct-to-home company Dish TV India Ltd on Wednesday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 74.54 crore for the quarter ended June.

It had posted a net loss of Rs 35.44 crore in the April-June period a year ago, Dish TV said in a BSE filing.

Revenue from operations slipped 9.79 per cent to Rs 835.58 crore during the quarter under review from Rs 926.30 crore earlier.

"Unlike the initial phase of the lockdown, revenues during the quarter were impacted due to a higher overall churn. In addition, the Y-o-Y decline in revenues was also due to a high base effect considering the plenty of cricket and general elections related coverage on television during the first quarter of last year," Dish TV said in a post-earnings statement.

Total expenses stood at Rs 747.87 crore as compared to Rs 899.95 crore earlier, down 16.89 per cent.

Subscription revenue was at Rs 791.5 crore, down 4.18 per cent from Rs 82.61 crore in Q1 FY2019-20.

"Renewals and recharges using digital mediums constituted bulk of the subscriptions received by the company. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and e-wallets witnessed further growth in their popularity during the quarter, becoming the preferred digital payment mode for subscribers," it added.

However, advertisement income plunged 84.26 per cent to Rs 3.1 crore, as compared to Rs 19.7 crore earlier.

The company said its OTT platform Watcho not only leveraged its inventory of indigenous web series to launch multiple new originals but also established itself as an important connection between the DTH platform and its subscribers.

Dish TV Group CEO Anil Dua said, "We believe that subscribers who download 'Watcho' are generally stickier on the DTH platform than those who haven't tried the app yet. From just a million plus subscribers in January 2020, Watcho crossed the 10 million+ members mark in August this year and we hope to double this number very soon."

On the outlook, Dish TV India CMD Jawahar Goel said with extreme unpredictability all around, it is more cautious than ever before.

"Expecting lack of consumer confidence, we are ready with leaner more value driven packs that should come in handy to take-on the free platform as well.

"We however expect the consumer sentiment to be more upbeat with the commencement of the cricketing season at the end of the second quarter and remain at elevated levels all through the traditionally strong third quarter," he said.

Shares of DishTV India Ltd closed at Rs 10.94on BSE, up 3.89 per cent.