Fever FM narrows FY’09 loss to Rs 297 mn

MUMBAI: Fever FM, the radio broadcasting business of HT Media Ltd, has narrowed its operating loss to Rs 297.2 million for the fiscal ended 31 March 2009 compared to Rs 398.2 million a year ago.

Revenue rose to Rs 296.8 million as against Rs 257.9 million in FY’08.

For the fourth quarter of the fiscal, Fever FM suffered an operating loss of Rs 20.9 million on a turnover of Rs 73.4 million.

Despite the weakening advertisement market in metros, HTML’s radio business has done well in Q4 FY2009. This has been primarily on account of focused footprint in four metro cities, unique programming format, robust revenue growth with focus on local advertisers and cost control measures. In addition, the listenership continues to grow in all the metro cities,… HT Media said.

HT Media Ltd, which also runs the print and online businesses, has posted a 43.66 per cent dip in net profit for quarter ended 31 March 2009.

During the quarter, the net profit of the company stood at Rs 234.3 million as against Rs 415.9 in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal. Income from the operations improved slightly (6.4 per cent) to Rs 3.37 billion as compared to Rs 3.17 a year ago.

The company blamed higher newsprint prices, adverse foreign currency movement and slowing ad revenue growth because of the adverse economic environment for decline in the Ebitda, which fell 30.52 per cent to Rs 503 million as against Rs 724 million a year ago.

For the fiscal, HT Media’s net profit saw a sharp dip of 41.04 per cent at Rs 852.3 million as against Rs 1.45 billion in the previous fiscal. Revenue increased 12 per cent to Rs 1.37 billion, up from Rs 1.20 billion primarily on account of Rs 74 million arising from the merger of radio business effective from 1 January 2009 and 11 per cent increase in advertisement revenue of publishing segment to Rs 1.13 billion from Rs 1.01 billion on year-on-year basis.

Commenting on the results, HT Media chairperson and editorial director Shobhana Bhartia said, We have increased our penetration in the Hindi heartland and have consolidated our position in the English dailies segment. We are delighted with the progress made by Mint and radio. Both have established an enduring brand presence. Our operations in the Internet segment continue to vindicate our trust placed in them. We remain committed and are on course in implementing our growth plans which combined with the results they have already yielded, encourages me to remain confident of our performance outlook going forward….

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