Digital subscriptions up 60% during lockdown, content production stalled: Balaji Telefilms

Leading media and content company Balaji Telefilms Ltd on Monday said its OTT platform ALTBalaji witnessed a strong uptake of digital subscriptions during the lockdown, even as its content production came to a "standstill".

ALTBalajiadded an average of 17,000 subscriptions per day post lockdown, registering a growth of around 60 per cent as against 10,600 in March 2020 pre lockdown, said Balaji Telefilms in a business update to bourses.

The company is closely monitoring the situation and is well positioned to restart production as soon as the situation returns to normalcy.

"Given the national lockdown, all content production has come to a standstill, we continue to monitor the situation closely. We are very confident that demand for content will increase once the situation returns to normal and are well prepared to resume business and ramp up content sales once the lock down is over," it said.

The company continues to have a very strong balance sheet with zero debt and cash balance of Rs 141 crore as onMarch 31, 2020.

"In addition, we hold readily monetizable inventory and receivables of films totalling Rs 99 crores which will add to our cash balance. The effective cash balance of the Company stands at Rs 240 crores," it said.

While talking about its OTT platform, Balaji Telefilms said that its has witnessed strong growth in watch times and subscriptions both during the lockdownperiod in its all key markets and demographics.

"ALTBalaji is witnessing strong uptake of digital subscriptions with an average of 17,000 subscriptions added per day post lockdown vs an average of 10,600 in March 2020 pre lockdown a growth of 60 per cent, said Balaji Telefilms.

As of date, ALTBalaji has over 1.7 million active direct subscribers, it added.

On its television content production, Balaji Telefilms said it has stopped production after March 18 and in the Q4 (January-March), it had produced 199 hours of content.

The company stopped all production on March 18 and had produced 199 hours of content for Q4 vs 219 hours in Q3 (October-December), it said adding Balaji Telefilms is well positioned to restart production as soon as the situation returns to normalcy.

Over its movie production business, the company which has three movies in pipeline said it has no planned releases in the current quarter and are currently awaiting more clarity on the available windows.

Balaji Telefilms currently has 3 movies in the pipeline of which Ktina was still under production at the time of the lockdown. Production work for the other two movies (Pagglait and Dolly Kitty Aur Who Chamakte Sitare) are complete. We had no planned releases in the current quarter and are currently awaiting more clarity on the available windows to release Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare, it said.