Zee News Ltd open to acquisitions

MUMBAI: Zee News Ltd?s two southern language channels have suffered a loss of Rs 510 million for the fiscal ended 31 March 2007 but improved viewership could mean that they turn profitable after a period of 18 months.

"The channel share of Zee Telugu and Zee Kannada have gone up to 6-7 per cent. Only when we start enjoying a share of 12-14 per cent can we hope to break even in operations. The healthy thing is that viewerhsip for the two channels is on an upward curve. The reality format shows are beginning to work for us," says Zee News CEO Harish Doraiswamy.

The focus this fiscal will be to cut down on their losses while aiming at faster growth from Zee News, Zee Marathi and Zee Bangla. "We are a bottomline driven company," says Doraiswamy.

The net impact of this: Zee News Ltd will not see any channel launches this fiscal. "The big spaces left for us is in the area of English news, a Tamil and a Malayalam general entertainment channel. As all these will consume money, we will wait till the two southern channels settle down," says Doraiswamy.

The company is open to acquisitions but nothing is being pursued at this stage. "It doesn?t make sense for us to buy another Hindi news channel. But we are open to acquisitions that will allow us to enter into new markets or complement our portfolio," says Doraiswamy.

The company also has no plans to dilute equity. There is no major capex requirement and expansion plans can be met with internal accruals and debt, he adds.

Zee Group is considering foraying into regional film production. "Plans are not firmed up yet. And it is not even definite whether it should be done inside Zee News Ltd or the Group itself, even if the green light is given to enter into regional film production," says Doraiswamy.

Zee News Ltd?s net profit stood at Rs 100 million and revenues for the 2006-07 fiscal grew 41.5 per cent to Rs 2.36 billion.