Discovery Communications India's net profit jumps by 18.23% to Rs 55 cr in FY20

Discovery Communications India has posted Profit after Tax (PAT) for the financial year 2019-2020 of Rs. 55 crores as against Rs. 46 crores in the previous year, thereby registering a growth of 18.23%, according to Registrar of Companies (ROC) filing shared by market intelligence firm Tofler.

The company said in the financial statement that in the year 2019-2020, the network has performed satisfactorily. The company’s Net Revenue from operations is approximately Rs. 872 crores as against Rs. 762 crores in the previous year, registering a growth of 14.48%.

The company revenue from advertising publicity dropped by 24% to Rs 117 crores as compared to Rs 154 crores in the previous year. However, the revenue from other services increased by 24% to Rs 740 crores against Rs 598 crores in the previous year.

The other revenue services include subscription, program sourcing fee, marketing service fees, etc. The broadcaster reported an increase of 2% to Rs. 126 crores as compared to Rs. 124 crores in FY19  in Programme Sourcing Fee which represents reimbursement of expenditure incurred by the Company for production, sourcing and customisation of programs for the channels (including Mobile Application) distributed by the company in India. Meanwhile, the company posted Rs. 136 crores of marketing and distribution service fee in FY20 which represents the service fee received by the company for distribution, marketing of discovery group channels and selling of commercial airtime in SAARC countries.

While the company’s revenue from marketing service fee increased by 108% to Rs. 148 crores versus Rs 71 crores in the previous fiscal year.

e4m reached out to Discovery for an official comment but didn’t receive it at the time of filing this report. 

The network won various awards for its programs, marking excellence in videography, scripting, sound design, and editing. These awards demonstrate your company’s unmatched leadership in non-fiction programming, reads the financial statement.

It further added that the company continues to work in the same nature of business during the financial year ended on 31 March 2020. “However, since the whole world is moving rapidly towards digitalization and there is a demand to provide the content to the consumers through OTT platforms, the company has also adopted the new age digital platforms to reach out to the audience.”

As per the data available, India’s on-demand digital streaming industry surpassed the national film industry in terms of both viewership and growth. “In 2019, Discovery partnered with ‘DailyHunt’, a mobile application available in the market, and launched a section of ‘Discovery Plus’ in DailyHunt application to offer its short-form content under the verticals of outdoor, food, wildlife, science, and military in multiple languages. However, in March 2020, an Over-the-Top internet platform (‘OTT’) namely ‘Discovery+’ was launched in India.

Moreover, the broadcaster on February 17, 2020, launched a new channel - Dsport HD and on March 18, 2020, rebranded the said channel from Dsport HD to Eurosport HD.