(17 June 2008 7:30 pm)

MUMBAI: Wire and Wireless India Ltd (WWIL), Zee group's demerged cable TV company, has seen a sharp surge of 70 per cent in placement fees for the fiscal ended 31 March 2008, gaining from an oversupply of TV channels who are willing to pay for space on choked analogue networks.

Income from bandwidth (placement and carriage fees) charges has grown to Rs 937.3 million for FY'08, compared with Rs 553.4 million a year ago.

Consolidated net loss, however, was higher at Rs 1.53 billion, compared with Rs 1.07 billion in the prior year.

Consolidated revenue was up 30 per cent at Rs 2.71 billion, from Rs 2.08 billion in FY'07.

"We have seen growth in both the revenue streams - bandwidth charges and subscription income. We see this growing this fiscal as well," says WWIL CEO Deepak Chandnani.

Expenditure increased from Rs 2.31 billion to Rs 2.89 billion in FY'08.

For the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2008, WWIL has posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 814.4 million, as against Rs 811.8 million in the previous fiscal.

During the quarter, the company’s consolidated revenue has seen a growth of 14 per cent from Rs 755.4 million as compared to Rs 663.7 million in the year ago period.

The company’s expenditure during the quarter has decreased six per cent to Rs 781.2 million.

Income from bandwidth charges has registered a whopping growth of 80 per cent to Rs 344.6 million, from Rs 192 million in the prior year.

Says Zee chairman Subhash Chandra, “We have identified several opportunities for the growth of our business and plan to consolidate our position in the cable business by focusing on digitalisation and transforming ourselves into a B to C company. The focus will be consumer and we will build all our systems, processes and delivery to provide the consumer with the best TV viewing experience with the value-added services (Vas) like broadband internet and movie-on-demand. One of the key enablers of this strategy is the planned launch of Headend-In-The Sky (HITS) in the next month.”

Adds Chandnani, “We would be the first multi-system operator (MSO) to deliver digital services through Hits platform in India in the coming month. This would enable us to roll out digital services and a sophisticated service network to a larger national market, beyond the currently notified Cas areas quickly and efficiently.”

WWIL's digital revenues have increased to Rs 74.8 million for the fourth quarter. The company has added new digital headends in Ludhiana and Lucknow in the quarter. "We have started seeding digital boxes which is estimated to provide us higher revenues and better margins as these are large cable and satellite markets with above average ARPU (average revenue per user) which is at Rs 200- Rs 250 per month,” says Chandnani.

Subscription income for the last quarter jumped 35.9 per cent to Rs 694.8 million (from Rs 511.2 million in the corresponding quarter last fiscal). However, revenue from sale of set-top boxes has declined from Rs 112.3 million to Rs 6.4 million.