New Delhi: Broadcaster New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) posted a net loss of Rs85.59 crore for the quarter ended 30 September. The loss narrowed from Rs119.38 crore a year earlier, but widened from Rs83.41 crore in the three months ended 30 June.
Consolidated revenue rose 17% to reach Rs140.37 crore against Rs120.27 crore a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the National Stock Exchange.
New role: Genpact’s Pramod Bhasin has joined the NDTV board. Hemant Mishra / Mint
As a result of cost-cutting measures, including salary cuts, the broadcaster managed to reduce its consolidated expenditure by 10% to Rs208.66 crore from Rs231.23 crore in the year-ago quarter.
“This trend will continue and there will be further reductions as well over the next few months,” NDTV said.
The company’s operating loss narrowed 43% from Rs103.48 crore a year earlier to Rs59.11 crore in the quarter to 30 September.
“The expansion for NDTV will come in the next quarter since the ad market will pick up further and also the cost rationalization measures that NDTV has taken will be more visible,” said an analyst who did not want to be name because his company has business dealings with NDTV.
NDTV recently said it would buy back a 26% stake that NBC Universal held in its non-news subsidiary NDTV Networks Plc, that runs several channels including entertainment channel NDTV Imagine, for an undisclosed amount. In May 2008, NBC had acquired the 26% stake in NDTV Networks for $150 million.
The company on Wednesday announced the induction of Pramod Bhasin, chief executive officer of Genpact Ltd, India’s largest business process outsourcing company, to the board of NDTV. Last month N.R. Narayana Murthy, founder-chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd, stepped down as a director in the company.