Zee Ent Q3 profit up 1.4x to Rs 58.5 crore, revenue increases 14.8%

Television broadcaster Zee Entertainment reported a 140 percent increase in profit at Rs 58.5 crore in the December quarter of FY24, up from Rs 24.32 crore during the same period a year ago.

The company reported a 15 percent increase in income at Rs 223 crore as against Rs 194 crore in Q3 FY23.

Zee which is reeling under the pressure of the terminated merger deal with Sony, saw a 52 percent drop in profits sequentially with the company reporting a profit of Rs 122.96 crore in Q2 FY24.

Zee reported advertising revenue of Rs 1027.4 crore, down 3.3 percent from Rs 1063.4 crore during the same period a year ago.

Subscription revenue grew 3 percent year-on-year to Rs 921.3 crore from Rs 894.4 crore.

The company said that the soft advertising environment partially offset by pickup in subscription revenue. Advertising revenue was impacted due to macroeconomic headwinds and consumption slowdown.

The broadcaster's network share dropped to 17.1 percent from 17.9 percent in Q2.

Analysts had expected Zee's market share to be negatively impacted due to the major cricket event in the first half of the quarter.

Zee noted that the domestic ad revenue was impacted by Cricket World Cup 2023 during Q3. "While Q3 saw some seasonal festive uptick, overall pace of ad environment recovery continues to be slow," the company said in investor presentation.