TV Today, one of India’s largest news broadcasting companies, reported a strong set of numbers for the Oct-Dec quarter, indicating that the TV broadcasting business had more or less completely recovered from the impact of COVID-19.
Revenue at the core TV broadcasting business returned to growth after a year, posting revenue of Rs 186 cr vs Rs 180 cr for the same period last year and Rs 144 for the preceding three months.
Operating profit at the unit zoomed to Rs 67.5 cr from Rs 51.3 cr, thanks to cost-cutting measures put in place during the pandemic.
This was crucial to increasing the overall operating profit to Rs 71.1 cr from Rs 54.7 cr last year and Rs 38.8 cr in the preceding quarter.
Even as revenue increased by Rs 2 cr, total non-tax expenses fell by almost Rs 15 cr to Rs 157.3 cr.
The biggest contributor to increased margins was under the ‘other expenses’ header, which fell to Rs 66.9 cr from Rs 74.7 cr. The company was also able to bring down overall production costs by Rs 6 cr to Rs 17.7 cr.
Despite the bounce-back seen in the TV business, the radio business continued to be under water.
The company lost Rs 3.8 cr in this business during the three months, compared to a loss of Rs 1.9 cr in the same quarter of the previous year. This was, however, an improvement over the loss of Rs 5.0 cr reported by the unit during the preceding (Jul-Sep) quarter.
The company saw strong growth in its digital business, with its ‘others’ division reporting an increase in profit to Rs 8.3 cr from Rs 6.0 cr last year and Rs 7.6 cr in the preceding quarter.
TV Today is one of India’s oldest media houses, and operates news channels such as Aaj Tak and India Today.