Network18's digital unit revenue up 35% to Rs 149.4Cr in Q4, losses down; BookMyShow selling 2.9M tickets monthly

Network18 Media & Investments' digital content and e-commerce business saw a 35 per cent growth in revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2014 to Rs 149.4 crore from Rs 110.4 crore last year. Net loss of the digital business for the quarter was Rs 13.8 crore against Rs 24.3 crore last year.

Revenues from the e-commerce business, which includes BookMyShow.com and HomeShop18, rose to Rs 125.3 crore from Rs 81.9 crore last year. However, digital content revenues declined to Rs 24.1 crore from Rs 28.4 crore in the fourth quarter last year. Network18's digital content businesses include Moneycontrol.com, Firstpost.com, In.com, IBNlive.com, Burrp.com and News18.com.

"Our digital businesses displayed encouraging revenue growth, successfully launched FirstBiz and News18.com and narrowed operating losses. We are focused on sustaining our strong performance in the coming year," said B Sai Kumar, Group CEO, Network18.

Network18 said it attracted an average of approximately 30 million monthly unique visitors.

The firm did not share detailed operating metrics but said BookMyShow, India's largest entertainment ticketing platform, continued its strong revenue trajectory. The average tickets sold every month grew by 86 per cent to 2.9 million (Q4 average) from 1.6 million last year. This means the firm was doing close to 1 lakh tickets a day.

Meanwhile, the group's e-com arm HomeShop18 is going for a US listing. The parent entity of television and e-com venture HomeShop18 has filed for a listing on NYSE early this year.

FY14

For the full year ended March 31, 2014, revenues from the digital content and e-commerce business grew 32 per cent to Rs 530.8 crore. This was led by digital commerce operations, which grew 60 per cent.

Operating losses (EBITDA) of the digital business declined to Rs 80.6 crore from Rs 125.4 crore.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)