Subhash Chandra promoted Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) has posted a 98.76 per cent jump in its net profit for the quarter ending June 30, 2008 to Rs 161 crore versus Rs 81 crore posted in the same period, last year. Even on a quarter-to-quarter comparion, ZEEL's net profit for the first quarter shot up by 54.80 per cent when compared with the last quarter of 2007-08 (January-March 31, 2008) when it was Rs 104.4 crore. ZEEL's revenue for the first quarter rose by 38 per cent to Rs 542 crore versus Rs 391.6 crore in the year ago period while its advertisement revenues shot up by 37 per cent to Rs 280 crore compared to the year ago period riding on health television rating points on its leading channel Zee TV among others. On the downside, ZEEL's consolidated programming and operative costs shot up by 21 per cent to Rs 237 crore in the first quarter due to start up costs of Zee Next (new youth channel), Zee Entertainment Studios (film production business), and other new initiatives compared to corresponding quarter last year. ZEEL operates the second largest general entertainment channel Zee TV, apart from a host of other channels and content production among other initiatives. Revenue from international operations outpaced the domestic revenue. ZEEL's international revenue contributed Rs 110 crore to the overall kitty while the revenue from operations within the country stood at Rs 105 crore. The scrip of ZEEL closed at Rs 209.75, 3.6 per cent higher, compared to yesterday.
