MUMBAI: Entertainment broadcasting company Viacom18 has narrowed its fiscal-second quarter net loss to Rs 198 million from Rs 284 million a year earlier, as its operating revenues rose while costs remained flat.

The containment of operating costs helped Viacom18 earn an operating profit of Rs 126 million for the quarter ended 30 September 2012 against operating loss of Rs 77 million a year earlier.

The TV18 Broadcast subsidiary?s interest expenses on borrowings in the second quarter were up 50 per cent to Rs 247 million from Rs 164 million a year earlier, weighing on profitability.

Viacom18?s operating revenue in the second quarter was up 8.85 per cent to Rs 3.01 billion from Rs 2.76 billion a year earlier, while its operating expenses were flat at Rs 2.88 billion compared with Rs 2.84 billion a year earlier.

The entertainment broadcaster?s operating profit from continuing business, including broadcasting and motion pictures, grew about 23 per cent in the second quarter to Rs 214 million from Rs 174 million a year earlier.

The operating loss from new operations was Rs 75 million in the second quarter against Rs 29 million a year earlier.

TV18 group CEO B Saikumar said, "Our broadcast business across news and entertainment has turned in a steady performance in spite of continued softness in the advertising environment. Notably, our distribution venture, IndiaCast has had a very encouraging start and this positions us well as digitisation gets underway. The other highlight of the quarter was the motion pictures business breaking into positive territory."

NEW DELHI: In a clean-up exercise, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, representing the largest number of television channels in the country, has advised its members to stop telecast of programmes relating to persons like Nirmal Baba as this promotes superstition.

IBF director (finance) Naresh Chahal told indiantelevision.com that the Foundation felt it was its social responsibility not to encourage such trends through television.

The advisory says that the telecasts promote ?superstition and blind belief? and therefore should not be encouraged.

Asked if this would apply to news channels who were also telecasting the live programmes of Nirmal Baba, Chahal said the advisory had been sent to all members which included news channels.

Interestingly, TV18 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai had said in a recent discussion on Media Ethics that channels were forced to show programmes of this kind in a scenario where the channels were dependent on advertising revenue rather than subscription revenue for their survival.
Earlier this month, a court in Madhya Pradesh had directed the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to stop telecast of advertorial programmes connected with ?self-styled guru? Nirmal Baba. The court also issued an arrest warrant and directed police to nab him by 25 June.

The magistrate?s court in Bina registered a case against the Godman and charged him with cheating by impersonation, criminal intimidation and violation of the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act.

Earlier in May, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court sought a reply from the Centre on the public interest litigation seeking ban on broadcast of Nirmaljeet Singh Narula alias Nirmal Baba?s programme on different TV channels. The matter will come for next hearing on July 16.

A notice was issued by a division bench of Justice Uma Nath Singh and Justice V K Dixit after hearing the PIL filed by local lawyer K Saran, who alleged that the programmes of Nirmal Baba violated the norms laid down in Cable TV Network (Regulation) Act 1995 and Rules.

Meanwhile, the Baba has suspended all gatherings for this month and promised to reimburse the payment received from his followers, apart from closing all entries for the July and August meets.