COVID impact: With degrowth of -4.9%, ZEEâ€™s FY21 revenues remain suppressed

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s (ZEEL) FY2021 operating revenues remained suppressed due to the impact of COVID-19 in H1 FY2021. ZEEL recorded operating revenues of Rs 77,299 million in FY2021, compared to Rs 81,299 million, a degrowth of -4.9%. Of these, Advertising revenues constituted Rs 37,488 million, Subscription revenues constituted Rs 32,430 million and Other Sales & Services constituted Rs 1,869 million.

Meanwhile, domestic advertising revenue for the fourth quarter FY2021 grew by 8.9% YoY, driven by the continued recovery in macro advertising environment. The FY2021 domestic advertising revenue declined by 19.7% due to the impact of the pandemic in H1 FY2021.

ZEEL recorded like-to-like subscription growth (excluding reclassification of music subscription revenue) of 5.6% and 5.8% for Q4 and the financial year, respectively, which was primarily driven by ZEE5.

Revenues from Other Sales & Services decreased YoY due to continued impact of the pandemic on theatrical revenues and reclassification of music revenue to subscription.

Programming cost (excluding one-time inventory write-off of Rs 2,598 million in Q4 FY2020) declined by 19.2% during the quarter, primarily due to lower accelerated inventory amortisation this quarter; adjusted programming cost for the year declined by 8.2% due to lower original programming during the first quarter.

International advertising revenue stood at Rs 526 million, while subscription revenue was recorded at Rs 553 million and revenue from Other Sales & Services stood at Rs 154 million.

EBITDA for Q4 FY2021 was reported at Rs 5,404 million, with EBITDA margic for the quarter recorded at 27.5%.

The ZEE network share improved to 18.9%, and ZEE continues to be India’s #2 TV entertainment network.

The network’s OTT streaming service reported 72.6 million global MAUs (monthly active users) and 6.1 million global DAUs (daily active users) in March 2021. The average watch time per viewer per month in Q4 FY2021 was reported at 156 minutes.

Q4 Revenue and EBITDA# or ZEE5 stood at Rs 1,075 million and Rs 1,625 million, respectively.

ZEE5 revised its annual pricing to Rs 499 to enable increased adoption of yearly subscription packs.