Media company HT Media Limited posted a consolidated operational revenue of ₹341 crore, which is down 40% YoY and up 31% over the previous quarter, in the quarter ended December 31, 2020. The company posted digital revenues of ₹25.42 crore; the segment, however, posted losses of ₹20 lakh.
During the quarter, HT Media pumped in ₹5.26 crore in Mosaic Media Ventures Private Limited, the parent company of VCCircle, which the Shobhana Bhartia-headed company acquired from News Corp in July 2020. Mosaic Media became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company from December 2, 2020. All is not going well with the merger, as NewsLaundry reported. A substantial number of VCCircle staff are no longer with the company, and their offices in Delhi and Mumbai have been shut down.
We had reported back in July that VCCircle’s sale was likely a direct result of the mandate to reduce FDI in digital media to 26% (from 100%). Since then, HuffPost India shuttered operations — all its content and articles disappeared from the India domain — after Buzzfeed Inc acquired HuffPost from Verizon Media.
Financial Snapshot
- Total Income: ₹392 crore, down 37.6% YoY, and up 89% over the previous quarter
- Net Profit: ₹9.43 crore, down 54% YoY, and down 123% over the previous quarter
- Digital Revenue: ₹25.42 crore, up 31% YoY and down 20% over the previous quarter; loss of ₹20 lakh, which improved by 94% YoY from losses of ₹3.15 crore in Q3FY20. Losses, however, increased from by 43% from ₹14 lakh in the previous quarter
- Print Revenue: ₹289 crore, down 42% YoY and up 29% over the previous quarter. The segment recorded losses of ; loss of ₹3.8 crore, down by 107% YoY and down 3% over the previous quarter
- Radio revenue: ₹27 crore, down 45% YoY and up 78% over the previous quarter; loss ₹25 crore, up 109% YoY and down 3% over the previous quarter
