Star India FY18 net profit drops to Rs 287 cr due to higher programming costs

Broadcaster Star India’s net profit for the fiscal ended 31st March 2018 has more than halved to Rs 287 crore as compared to Rs 554 crore during FY17 due to higher programming costs, The Economic Times has reported.

The company’s programming cost went up by 18.57% to Rs 4,887.3 crore during FY18 compared to Rs 4,121.6 crore a year earlier, according to data accessed by business intelligence platform, Tofler.

The company’s total expenses rose by 12.2% at Rs 8,974 crore from 7,992 crore a year earlier. Revenue from operations increased marginally by 3.6% to Rs 9,148 crore from Rs 8,827 crore in FY17.

The company’s advertising promotional expenses fell by 6.8% at Rs 691 crore from Rs 738 crore. The company saw a rise of 7.8% in employees benefit expenses to Rs 895 crore.

Star India, which has been acquired by Walt Disney from 21st Century Fox, had set a target of $500 million EBITDA in FY18. The target was to deliver an EBITDA of $1 billion by FY20.

In its last conference call in August 2018, 21st Century Fox (21CF) CEO James Murdoch had indicated that the company’s Star India business has not hit the $500 million EBITDA target in FY18. In the same breath, he had also stated that the company’s EBITDA was not very far away from the avowed target.

Murdoch noted that the company has made a big investment in Hotstar. On an earlier occasion, Murdoch had stated that the company will invest $50 million in the Hotstar platform in FY18.