BENBALURU: After a few consecutive quarters during which the Ekta Kapoor run Balaji Telefilms Limited (Balaji Telefilms) reported consolidated operating losses, the company is showing signs of return to profitability. Balaji Telefilms reported operating profit of Rs 2.8 crore for the quarter ended 31 December 2016 (Q3-17, current quarter). In the current fiscal, the company had reported consolidated operating losses of Rs 26.2 crore and Rs 3 crore for the Q2-17 and Q1-17 respectively. In Q3-16, the company had reported an operating profit of Rs 18.05 crore (as per its older accounting practise – since 1 April 2016, the company has adopted IND-AS).

The company reported increase in programming hours for the current quarter due to higher number of serials – 10 in the current quarter as against 9 in the immediate trailing quarter Q2-17. In Q3-17, Balaji Telefilms reported 262 hours of programming as against 231 hours in Q2-17. Though the company reported 294 hours of programming in Q3-16, its net realisation per hour for the current quarter is much higher at Rs 31.9 lakh as compared to Rs 24.2 lakh in the corresponding year ago quarter and Rs 26.3 lakh in the immediate trailing quarter. Revenue from Balaji Telefilm’s Commissioned Programs segment in Q3-17 was Rs 83.74 crore, while for Q2-16 it was Rs 72.01 crore.

Further, though year-over-year (y-o-y) gross margin per hour has declined in the current quarter to Rs 7.10 lakh from Rs 8.7 lakh in Q3-16, it is higher than the Rs 6.8 lakh in Q4-16; Rs 5.2 lakh in Q1-17 and Rs 6.4 lakh in the immediate trailing quarter.

The company had no film releases in the current quarter as compared to four in the immediate trailing quarter during which the company says that it incurred significant losses due to piracy.

Balaji Telefilms reported a consolidated loss of Rs 1.78 crore in Q3-17, as compared to Profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 6.63 crore for the corresponding year ago quarter. Loss in the immediate trailing quarter was higher at Rs 28 crore.

The company reported 40.7 percent higher revenue (TIO) in the current quarter at Rs 102.96 crore as compared to Rs 73.15 crore in Q3-16, but 2.5 percent lower than the Rs 105.91 crore in the immediate trailing quarter Q2-17.

On a standalone basis, Balaji Telefilms Limited (BTL) – the television arm reported higher a net profit of Rs 8 crores in the current quarter versus Rs 4.4 crore in the immediate trailing quarter. Standalone revenues for Q3-17 and Q2-17 were Rs 83.9 crore and Rs 61.2 crore respectively.

ALT Digital

Revenue from Balaji Telefilms digital business – ALT- was Nil as the company is getting ready to launch commercial services in early Q4-17. Other Income from ALT was Rs 1.6 crore in Q3-17 versus Rs 3.3 crore in Q2-17.

Balaji Telefilms says that it will continue to add original, exclusive and disruptive content in preparation for launch. It reveals that its content library at launch will have 6 original shows and some curated content totalling over 200 hours of content
It says further that it has entered into marketing and distribution tie ups with leading smartphone OEMs / telco / ISP / eCommerce and payment partners.

Let us look at the other numbers reported by Balaji Telefilms

Revenue from Balaj Telefilms movie business for Q3-17 was Rs 19.2 crore against Rs 43.2 crore in Q2-17. The movie business had an operating loss of Rs 1.7 crore in the current quarter. Operating loss in the immediate trailing quarter was Rs 28 crore. Total amount invested as of 31 September 2016 in movies that are under production was Rs 50.2 crore says the company.

Total Expenditure in the current quarter increased 51.4 percent y-o-y to Rs 103.98 crore (100.3 percent of TIO) as compared to Rs 68.69 crore (87.3 percent of TIO) in Q3-16. Cost of Production/Acquisition and Telecast Fees in Q3-17 was Rs 77.37 crore (74.6 percent of TIO), 13.7 percent more than Rs 68.04 crore (86.5 percent of TIO) in the corresponding year ago quarter.

Employee Benefit Expense in the current quarter increased 35 percent y-o-y to Rs 6.63 crore (6.4 percent of TIO) as compared to Rs 4.92 crore (6.2 percent of TIO).

Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee - Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
(a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
(b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion...