(21 June 2010 10:30 pm)

MUMBAI: Hinduja Venture’s cable business, under the cable distribution subsidiary IndusInd Media and Communications Limited (IMCL), has reported a 35 per cent increase in net profit for the fiscal ended 31 March 2010.

The segment, which also includes financials of subsidiaries of IMCL, has posted a net profit of Rs 333.1 million for the fiscal, as compared to Rs 246.7 million in the year-ago period.

Total income for the year stood at Rs 3.29 billion, up 11 per cent.

EBIDTA was at Rs 690.1 million, as against Rs 505.4 million in FY'09, showing a 36.54 per cent jump.

During the fiscal, Sangli Media Services became a subsidiary of IMCL, effective 2 July. IMCL also acquired 50 per cent stake in RMD Baroda Networks, effective 1 April 2009.

IMCL said its investments in new geographies have contributed to the growth and continued profitability of the company.

The company said it was the practice of IMCL to adjust the additional depreciation on revalued assets from revaluation reserve. During the year, IMCL has changed its policy to charge such additional depreciation to the Profit and Loss account instead of revaluation reserve. Accordingly, additional depreciation of Rs 51.98 million has been charged to Profit and Loss account for the fiscal.

IMCL has deployed over 400,000 set top boxes for converting analogue to digital homes. This includes 150,000 digital boxes in the mandated Cas (conditional access system) areas.

IMCL has a reach of over eight million subscribers across 27 major cities. It offers 230 channels in the digital mode and about 90 TV channels on analogue cable.

IMCL has a backbone of over 6500 km of hybrid fibre optic network.

The company is also into content creation, acquisition and aggregation for TV services.