BENGALURU: The Essel Group’s Subhash Chandra led Siti Cable Network Limited reported revenue of Rs 910.4 crore from its cable operations, up 31.4 per cent as compared to the Rs 693 crore in FY-2014. Cable business includes Subscription, Carriage, Activation and Advertisement revenue streams.
The company reported subscription revenue of Rs 531 crore in FY-2015, which was up 56.4 per cent from Rs 339.5 crore in FY-2014. Last year Siti Cable had reported carriage revenue of Rs 227.1 crore. The company’s revenue from its broadband operations grew 53.3 per cent to Rs 26.5 crore in the current year as compared to the Rs 17.3 crore in the previous year.
Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore.
Siti Cable’s digital subscriptions increased 34.5 per cent to 53.8 lakh digital subscribers in FY-2015 as compared to the 40 lakh digital subscribers in FY-2014. Overall, the number of subscribers, both digital and analogue remained the same at 1.05 crores in FY-2015 as well as in the previous year. The company claims a broadband subscriber base of 70100 as compared to the 54000 subscribers in Q3-2015 and 48000 in Q2-2015.
Siti Cable reported a 16 per cent higher loss in FY-2015 (year ended 31 March, 2015, current year) at Rs 109.1 crore as compared to the loss of Rs 94.06 crore in FY-2014. The company also reported higher loss in Q4-2015 at Rs 34.13 crore as compared to the Rs 20.86 crore in Q4-2014 and a loss of Rs 20.44 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.
EBIDTA in FY-2015 at Rs 168.4 crore grew 33.8 per cent from Rs 125.9 crore in FY-2014. EBIDTA in Q4-2015 at Rs 32.1 crore was 15.1 per cent more than the Rs 27.9 crore in Q4-2014, but declined 35.9 per cent as compared to the Rs 50.1 crore in Q3-2015.
Let us look at the other numbers reported by Siti Cable:
Siti Cable’s Total Expenditure (TE) in FY-2015 at Rs 901.35 crore (99.5 per cent of Total Income from Operations or TIO) was 34.9 per cent more than the Rs 668.2 crore (95.8 per cent of TIO) in FY-2014. TE in Q4-2015 at Rs 280.49 crore (109.6 per cent of TIO) was 20.3 per cent more than the Rs 233.07 crore (99.9 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2015 and 32.2 per cent more than the Rs 212.11 crore (95.7 per cent of TIO) in Q5-2015.
The company’s carriage sharing, pay channel and related costs (channel cost) in FY-2015 increased 53 per cent to Rs 510.82 crore (66.4 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 333.95 crore (47.9 per cent of TIO) in FY-2014. Channel cost in Q4-2015 was 26.4 per cent higher at Rs 156.98 crore (61.3 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 124.16 crore (53.2 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014 and 41.3 per cent more than the Rs 111.07 crore (50.1 per cent ot TIO) in Q3-2015.
Siti Cable’s finance cost in FY-2015 increased 1.5 per cent to Rs 120.88 crore (13.3 per cent of TIO) from Rs 119.11 crore (17.1 per cent of TIO) in Q5-2015. Finance costs in Q4-2015 at Rs 31.05 crore (12.1 per cent of TIO) was 0.6 per cent lower than the Rs 31.24 crore (13.4 per cent of TIO), but 3.9 per cent higher than the Rs 29.88 crore in Q3-2105.
Other expenses in FY-2015 at Rs 204.25 crore (22.6 per cent of TIO) was 0.8 per cent more than the Rs 202.64 crore (29.1 per cent of TIO) in FY-2014. Other expense in Q4-2015 at Rs 72.53 crore (28.3 per cent of TIO) was 3.8 per cent lower than the Rs 75.39 crore (32.31 per cent of TIO), but was 44.7 per cent higher than the Rs 50.11 crore (22.6 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter.
“Our focus on monetization of existing business in phase 1 & 2 cities in FY15, led to a strong subscription revenue growth of 57 per cent y-o-y and operating EBITDA margin expansion by 491bps. Siti Cable is engaged in proactive seeding and well placed to benefit from the ongoing digitization process. We are looking to expand our broadband presence on DOCSIS Technology in our endeavour to diversify our revenue stream and provide the consumer with a compelling experience,” said Siti Cable executive director and CEO V D Wadhwa.
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