Zee5 adds 5.2 million MAUs in Q4FY19

Zee5 now has 61.5 million monthly active users, adding 5.2 million new MAUs between December 2018 and March 2019. Parent company Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited reported revenue of ₹2,019.3 crore, which is 17% higher than the last quarter, for the quarter ending 31 March, 2019 (Q4FY19). Total revenue for FY18-19 grew by 18.7% YoY to ₹7,933.9 crore.

Zee5 metrics:

• MAUs: 61.5 million in March 2019, growth slowed; the previous quarter had seen a growth of 36% to 56.3 million MAUs between September 2018 and December 2018
• Average time spent: 31 minutes per day, flat over the previous quarter
• Original content: 60 shows and movies across 6 languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi

Partnerships:

• Signed a content partnership deal with Vodafone Idea — Zee5 content is now available on Vodafone Idea’s apps; Zee5 bundled its service with Gaana
• Launched customised app on KaiOS for Reliance Jio feature phone users
• Added Amazon Pay as a payment partner

Expansion:

• Commenced roll-out in priority markets — Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia

Financials:

• Quarterly revenue: ₹2,019.3 crore, up 17% over last quarter
• Annual revenue: ₹7,933.9 crore, up 18.7% over last year
• Quarterly expenditure: ₹1,451 crore, up 16% over last quarter
• Annual expenditure: ₹5,370 crore, up 16.5% over last year
• Profit after Tax (PAT): ₹1,567.1 crore, growth of 6% over previous year
• ZEEL’s “unexpected” domestic advertising revenue growth of 17.7% to ₹1,157.5 crore in this quarter was aided by Zee5; TV entertainment spends were not expected to have grown as much because of disruption by the TRAI order, said the company
• Domestic advertising revenues for FY18-19 grew by 19.8% YoY, partly because of monetisation of Zee5’s users, the company said
• Programming cost increased by 28.1% YoY due to content cost for Zee5, full quarter impact of Kerala channel launch, and elevated costs for the movie production and distribution business. FY18-19 registered a programming cost increase of 21.7%.
• Advertising and publicity costs for the quarter increased by 46% YoY because of higher marketing costs for Zee5, TRAI tariff order and Manikarnika. For the whole year, they increased by 10.8%.