DB Corp Q3 net up, says will hike ad rates in March

For the quarter ended December 2010, media firm DB Corp has posted revenue of Rs 348 crore compared to Rs 281 crore it did in the same quarter last year, a 24% jump. Net profit rose 30% to Rs 66 crore versus Rs 50.5 crore it did in the same period a year ago.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Girish Agarwaal, Non-Executive Promoter Director, DB Corp said, the company will revise its advertising rates again this March which would take it to the next level on rate realisation.

Commenting on the publication's Ranchi edition, which was launched last August, Agarwaal expressed confidence that the region would grow steadily going forward.

Below is a verbatim transcript. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: Let us talk about advertising growth first if we can strip that between inventory and volume and any kind of realization growth this quarter?

A: Our overall growth if you look at this quarter as compared to the q3 of last year we are around 29% growth. I would say that almost large chunk almost 75-80% growth still coming from the volume and the balance is from the unit price increase.

For example if you see penetration from 21.5% is gone up to 23% on an average. So that indicates that the volumes are still coming back.

Q: Through the rest of the calendar year do you expect to see any improvement in realizations for your ad rates?

A: If you notice in last year also we have seem some improvement in the rates and now we are restructuring our rate cards and hopefully by March we should take another rate revision and that would take us to the next level on the rate realization for the next year.

Q: Circulation revenues though have been quite flattish