Riding the stay-at-home wave, Saregama’s Q3 FY21 PAT up 201% to Rs 316 mn

Saregama, India’s oldest music label and the youngest movie studio, has registered a 201% growth in its profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 316 million for the third quarter of FY 2020-21. On a QoQ basis, the Q3 FY21’s consolidated turnover at Rs 1,339 million and profit before tax (PBT) at Rs 414 million grew by 24% and 8%, respectively. 

PBT for the 9 month period stood at Rs 1,016 million, while full year FY20 PBT was reported at Rs 603 million. 

Saregama has consistently been able to increase monetisation of its IP (music, films, TV serials) over the last 12 quarters. Digitisation and low cost of data in India remain the growth driver of content consumption. This is further fuelled by the increase in smartphones and rising popularity of OTT apps. 

With no new films getting released, Saregama focussed on creation/ acquisition of non-film Hindi and regional language songs over the last 10 months. Saregama has also bought music rights of four big banner Hindi films, expected to release in the next 6 to 14 months. 

The company recently launched Carvaan Mini Kids and Carvaan Karaoke, both of which have met with a lot of customer appreciation. Saregama sold 138K Carvaan units in Q3 FY21, up by 70% QoQ. 

Saregama released the film ‘Comedy Couple’ on Zee5, which has received 7.5 IMDb rating and has been trending since its launch. With this movie, the company’s movie studio, Yoodlee, has released 15 films over the last 38 months. 

Tamil serial ‘Roja’ continues to reign at No. 1 position (by TRPs) across all Tamil channels. Its views on YouTube have also grown significantly. Buoyed by its success, Saregama launched its 3rd serial, ‘AnbeVaa’, on Sun TV during this quarter. Within two months, the program has started getting high TRPs. 

The fast growing digitisation-of-India, buoyed by the present COVID-19 situation, is the key driver of change in content consumption habits. This trend is expected to continue for a long time, and Saregama has aligned its content strategy to ride on this digital wave.