Mumbai: UTV Software Communications has posted a net profit of Rs 251 million for the quarter ended 30 June, which is up 176 per cent as compared to Rs 91 million in the same period previous fiscal.
The company reported a growth of 154 per cent in total revenue to Rs 1,452 million from Rs 571 million.
UTV Software Communications has consolidated the financials of UTV-US, IG Interactive, UMP PLC, UTV TV Content and UTV New Media and the group’s indirect subsidiaries Ignition Entertainment Limited, Indiagames Limited, UTV-Motion Pictures (Mauritius), ITNation Media and RB Entertainment and UTV’s television joint ventures Smriti Irani Television Limited and Windmill Entertainment Limited.
"Growth in all our businesses and our focus on building partnerships have resulted is strong performance for this quarter. We believe that the expanded opportunity pipelines that we have created over the past few quarters in each of our verticals have started to deliver bringing us in the forefront of this dynamic Indian media and entertainment industry," said UTV Software Communications chairman and CEO Ronnie Screwvala
"The outlook for this fiscal is very attractive, given the initiatives that we are implementing in all our five verticals i.e. Television, Movies, Interactive, Broadcasting and New Media. We are creating our own content with renewed drive and vigour where we have diversified into genres like reality, quiz and comedy. We are also the preferred programmer for our in-house broadcasting channels," added Screwvala.
The company’s movie business has witnessed triple digit revenue growth this quarter, whereas the television business is slowly gaining momentum with the slew of new shows that are being added.
"Our interactive business caters to one of the fastest growing interactive entertainment spaces i.e. gaming. We are the only Company out of India who has developed capabilities to produce and distribute games across all three platforms – Console, Mobile and Online. We are looking at further enriching this bouquet by adding global publishing and distribution capabilities in the online space. With these initiatives and more, we expect this business to be one of the key growth drivers in the years to come," he said.
UTV’s broadcasting venture will be integrated with the company by the end of July this year. The company has also received all regulatory approvals for investments in the broadcasting business. This will result in 75 per cent and 15 per cent investment from UTV and Disney respectively in the Broadcasting business. The transaction is expected to consummate by the end of July 2008.
"The key is to create the right mix of focused content using our expertise and with a tight cost model. We are very pleased with the performance achieved by the bouquet launched in just last few months," Screwvala said.
UTV also forayed into the new media space, which includes content creation and distribution pipelines for web and mobile under UTV New Media Limited.
