SPNI's FY22 Consolidated Revenue Increases By 21%

Culver Max Entertainment's (formerly known as Sony Pictures Networks India) consolidates revenue from operations for the fiscal ended 31st March 2022 has jumped 20.51% to Rs 6746.3 crore from Rs 5597.7 crore in the previous fiscal ended 31st March 2021.

According to the company's financial data access by business intelligence platform Tofler, total income increased 20% to Rs 6867.5 crore from Rs 5721.6 crore a year ago. Other income saw a 2.17% drop at Rs 121.2 crore against Rs 123.9 crore.

Ad revenue grew 29.48% to Rs 3408.4 crore compares to Rs 2632.3 crore. Subscription income expands by 8.85% to Rs 2704.7 crore against Rs 2484.7 crore. Licensing income was up 46% to Rs 616.6 crore from Rs 423.4 crore. 

Total expenses rose 17.68% to Rs 5594.6 crore from Rs 4753.7 crore. The cost of Programs, Films & other rights increased  17.21% to Rs 3496.9 crore from Rs 2983.4 crore.

Employee benefits expenses surge by 46.48% to Rs 624.6 crore from Rs 426.4 crore. Advertising promotional expenses shot up by 29.84% to Rs 800.4 crore from Rs 616.3 crore. The broadcast cost was up 3.53% to Rs 134.7 crore from Rs 130.1 crore.

The company's name changes from Sony Pictures Networks India to Culver Max Entertainment effective from April 20, 2022. Sony Pictures Networks is the consumer-facing identity of Culver Max Entertainment, which is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, Japan.

Culver Max Entertainment owns and operates 25 channels across GEC, movie, sports, infotainment, and kids genres. It also runs the video streaming platform SonyLIV. The network's content library of original programming spans 60,000 hours.

As is known, Culver Max Entertainment and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) are in the process of combining their businesses under the former. Following the transaction, Sony Pictures Entertainment will indirectly hold 50.86% of the combined company, the promoters (founders) of ZEEL will hold 3.99%, and the other ZEEL shareholders will hold a 45.15% stake.

Comparatively, ZEEL's FY22 grew by 14.1% to Rs 8189.3 crore on the back of higher ad sales and movie business. In the previous fiscal, the revenue stood at Rs 7178.6 crore.

For the fiscal under review, ZEEL's ad revenue jumped 17% to Rs 4396.5 crore from Rs 3748.8 crore. Subscription revenue saw flattish growth at Rs 3246.6 crore against Rs 3243 crore as the pricing embargo continued to impact linear revenue growth. Other sales and services revenue rose 192% to Rs 546.2 crore from Rs 186.9 crore.

The company's expenditure was up 18.3% to Rs 6467.3 crore compared to Rs 5466.8 crore. EBITDA remained flat at Rs 1722.1 crore compared to Rs 1711.9 crore. The net profit zoomed 32% to Rs 964.4 crore from Rs 732.5 crore.