Shemaroo To Invest Rs 50 Cr In New Biz Initiatives In FY23

Shemaroo Entertainment will be investing Rs 50 crore in new initiatives like the broadcast and the video streaming businesses during the ongoing FY23 fiscal, a top company official has stated. The company had invested Rs 67 crore in new initiatives in FY22.

The company's new initiatives include TV channels Shemaroo TV, Shemaroo MarathiBana, and the recently launched Shemaroo Umang. The OTT business comprises of ShemarooMe app.

"Our investment on new initiatives in FY23 is likely to be around Rs 50 crore, which was Rs 67 crore in FY22," Shemaroo Entertainment CEO Hiren Gada told analysts during the Q4 FY22 earnings call.

He added that more than 50% of the investment will go into the broadcast business and a significant sum will be invested in ShemarooMe. The company will devote 10-15% of its investments toward smaller initiatives.

Hiren is confident that the company's entertainment channels Shemaroo TV and Shemaroo MarathiBana will achieve break-even in the middle of FY23. "We are visibly on track for the overall break-even of these two channels," he asserted.

The Shemaroo chief also stated that the company's advertising revenue got impacted during the initial stages of the quarter due to the spread of the omicron variant. However, the advertising rebounded in the latter part of the quarter.

"The lockdown on account of omicron variant in the first month of this quarter definitely put pressure on the revenues as advertising spends were impacted. Secondly, overall this was amplified due to the triple threat of rising input costs, uncertainty in the global economic environment, and supply chain disruptions you know primarily in many of the advertiser sectors. However, on the positive side, we witnessed the return of advertisers who were absent during a large part of the COVID-19 pandemic. This partially offsets the pressure on advertising revenues," Hiren said.

He also pointed out that the company launched another Hindi GEC during the quarter following the exit of the Big 4 broadcasters from the DD Free Dish platform. Sensing opportunity due to the exit of Star Utsav, Sony Pal, Zee Anmol, and Colors Rishtey, the company launched Shemaroo Umang to tap into the 40 million strong DD Free Dish customer base.

"GEC channels of the top four broadcasters have DD Free Dish thereby creating an opportunity for the FTA-focused broadcasters to gain viewership. We took this opportunity to launch a new Hindi GEC-focused FTA channel called Shemaroo Umang. Our other FTA channel Shemaroo TV saw an improvement in ratings due to our continued efforts on quality content creation and increasing reach. When Shemaroo MarathiBana’s ratings remained steady on the back of fresh programming," Hiren said.

Shemaroo Entertainment COO Kranti Gada stated that Shemaroo TV and Shemaroo Umang despite being Hindi GECs are positioned differently. Shemaroo TV is male-focused while Shemaroo Umang is skewed toward female audiences.

"So, we have started positioning Shemaroo TV towards a slightly more male-skewed TG. We have two prominent crime slots which are doing very well for the channel. We have a very strong slot also on the channel which does well. And, Shemaroo Umang is a female TG-oriented channel. It’s very very inclined towards drama shows around female audiences. So that way, we are also positioning both the channels separately," Kranti elaborated.

ShemarooMe released 15 new titles during this quarter with content across movies, web series, and plays. The platform also partnered with BSNL domestically and Orange Telecom and Epicellar Telecom in Egypt Internationally for the distribution of ShemarooMe. Shemaroo's Filmi Gaane YouTube channel crossed 59.7 million subscribers.