BENGALURU: DB Corp Limited (DB Corp), home to flagship newspapers Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Dainik Divya Marathi and Saurashtra Samachar reported an 8.1 per cent increase in Total Income from Operations (TIO) at Rs 2009.57 crore in FY-2015 (year ended March 31, 2015, current quarter) as compared to the Rs 1859.76 crore in FY-2014. In Q4-2015, DB Corp TIO at Rs 455.6 crore was 6.9 per cent more than the Rs 454.17 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, but was 12.4 per cent lower than the Rs 554.57 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.

The company’s radio segment –MY FM, which contributes less than 5 per cent (4.77 percent in FY-2015) to its overall revenue, reported 20.7 per cent increase in revenue in FY-2015 to Rs 95.87 crore from Rs 79.45 crore in the previous year. MY FM operating profit improved 51.9 per cent in FY-2015 to Rs 31.23 crore from Rs 20.56 crore reported in the previous year.

MY FM revenue in Q4-2015 at Rs 26.68 crore was 24.8 per cent more than the Rs 21.37 crore in Q4-2014 and 3.9 per cent more than the Rs 25.69 crore in Q3-2015. The segment reported 38.4 per cent growth in operating profit to Rs 9.95 crore in the current quarter as compared to the Rs 7.19 crore in Q4-2014 and 5.4 per cent more than the Rs 9.44 crore in Q3-2015.

In its earnings release, DB Corp says that revenue from print advertisement grew 1.3 per cent y-o-y to Rs 319.1 crore in Q4-2014 from Rs 315.1 in Q4-2014, while q-o-q, print advertisement revenue declined  18.9 per cent from Rs 393.4 crore in Q3-2015.

Radio advertisement in Q4-2015 grew 24.8 per cent to Rs 26.8 crore as compared to the Rs 21.5 crore in Q4-2015 and grew 4.3 per cent as compared to the Rs 25.7 crore in Q3-2015.
Digital advertising revenue grew 107.8 per cent in the current quarter to Rs 9 crore from Rs 4.3 crore in Q4-2014, but fell 1.2 per cent as compared to the Rs 9.2 crore in Q3-2015.

DB Corp managing director Sudhir Agarwal said, “For Dainik Bhaskar, this fiscal demanded stronger marketing efforts and closer introspection of all operational aspects, with all our teams across every department putting in harder efforts. We have undertaken significant changes to the billing structure to ensure better value for advertisers as well as for ourselves. Continued softness in newsprint prices has also protected the bottom line.”

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