New Delhi: Essel Group direct-to-home arm Dish TV India Ltd has reported widening of its consolidated net loss to Rs 1,456.25 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2020.
The company had reported a net loss of Rs 1,361.30 crore in the January-March quarter of the previous year, Dish TV said in a BSE filing.
Its revenue from operation was down 37.86 per cent to Rs 869.06 crore during the quarter under review, as against Rs 1,398.75 crore of the corresponding quarter a year ago.
According to the company, its results are not comparable because of the implementation of the new tariff regime in the broadcast sector.
"With programming cost becoming a pass-through item in the new tariff regime, subscription and operating revenues for the quarter and fiscal are not comparable with the corresponding period last year," the company said in its earnings statement.
In the exceptional items, the company had shown an "impairment of goodwill" of Rs 1,915.50 crore and posted a profit before exceptional items and tax of Rs 55.53 crore.
The Essel Group firm also stated that it has witnessed a surge in renewals and recharges during the quarter when the country slipped into coronavirus-induced lockdown.
"News channels, followed by movies and general entertainment channels notwithstanding the re-runs of old shows witnessed high time-spent by viewers. Dish TV India witnessed a surge in renewals and recharges with digital mediums constituting 76 per cent of all subscriptions received by the company," the company said.
In January-March period Dish TV subscription revenue was 776.6 crore, which is 89.4 per cent of the revenue. It was Rs 1,308.3 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
While its advertisement income for the quarter under review stood at Rs 12.1 crore. It was Rs 24.1 core in Q4/FY2018-19.
"Though our revenues were positively impacted by the higher number of win backs and recharges during the initial days of the lockdown, we could not be complacent during such trying times and went all out to scan every cost-centre for greater operational efficiencies.
"Our all-time high EBITDA and EBITDA margin recorded during the quarter was a result of operational resilience demonstrated by the business," Dish TV India Group CEO Anil Dua said.
The total expenses for the period under review stood at Rs 816.49 crore, as against Rs 1,490.72 crore in the corresponding quarter.
For the fiscal year 2019-20, DishTV had a net loss of Rs 1,654.84 crore. It has reported a net loss of Rs 1,163.41 crore in the previous fiscal.
Its revenue from operations in fiscal 2019-20 was Rs 3,556.34 crore. It was Rs 6,166.13 crore in 2018-19.
Shares of DishTV India Ltd was trading at Rs 7.59 on BSE, down 1.17 per cent from the previous close.
