Moneycontrol Bureau
DTH service provider Dish TV surpassed street expectations on every parameter on Tuesday with the fourth quarter profit at Rs 35 crore against loss of Rs 149 crore in the year-ago period.
"Our single-minded devotion to being the leader in the DTH industry along with uncompromised financial discipline, enabled us to reach the net profitability milestone much ahead of our peers," said Jawahar Goel, Managing Director, Dish TV.
Total income from operations grew by 18.5 percent to Rs 754.7 crore during January-March quarter compared to Rs 636.91 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.
A CNBC-TV18 poll had expected a loss of Rs 4.6 crore on revenue of Rs 732 crore for the quarter.
Better-than-expected subscription revenue boosted earnings during the quarter. Subscription revenue climbed 24.4 percent on yearly basis to Rs 682.8 crore in Q4FY15.
Dish TV said it achieved a strong, sector leading, subscriber growth of 1.5 million net subscribers during the year.
During the quarter, the company garnered net subscribers that were almost equal to the numbers during the festival quarter of October–December 2014. "While Zing gained ground in Phase 3 & 4 markets, High–Definition (HD) driven sports offerings were the main-stay, in Rest of India, during the Cricket World Cup 2015," Goel said.
Average revenue per user (ARPU) came in at Rs 179 in March quarter against Rs 177 in December quarter, which was also ahead of street estimates (Rs 177).
Goel said the company is confident that pack price hikes, higher HD uptake, as well as industry level developments such as initiation of packaging in cable will be key contributors to ARPU expansion going forward.
As digitisation spreads far and wide, he continued to believe that there is sufficient headroom to further explore price differentials between key urban markets and their rural counterparts.
All pack prices, for new as well as existing subscribers of Dish TV, increased by Rs 10 each in the 42 cities under Phase 1 and 2.
Operating profit (EBITDA) shot up 72 percent year-on-year to Rs 221 crore and margin expanded by 910 basis points to 29.4 percent during the quarter due to cost control measures. Analysts had estimated operating profit at Rs 192 crore and margin at 26.2 percent for the quarter.
In FY15, consolidated revenues grew by 10.9 percent to Rs 2,781.6 crore and operating profit jumped 17.5 percent to Rs 733.1 crore compared to previous year. Net profit for the year was Rs 3.1 crore compared to loss of Rs 157.6 crore net loss in fiscal 2014.
At 14:01 hours IST, the scrip of Dish TV India was quoting at Rs 90, up Rs 5.20, or 6.13 percent amid high volumes after hitting a 52-week high of Rs 90.90 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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