COVID-19’s second wave impacts ZEEL’s margins for Q1’FY22; domestic ad growth stands at -22.7% than 2020

• With lockdowns in most states, ZEE's TV viewership jumped again during the quarter, though lower than Q1 of last year.
• ZEEL's OTT platform ZEE5 closes the quarter with an average watch time of 109 minutes per viewer per month.

ZEEL has released its quarterly earnings report. As per the report, second COVID wave reversed the strong recovery the group witnessed in H2FY21. Domestic ad revenues for both Q1FY22 and Q1FY21 were impacted by lockdowns. However, the impact this year was much lower, reflected in 127.9% YoY growth. Compared to Q1FY20, domestic ad revenues were lower by 22.7%.


This increase in marketing cost on a YoY basis is on account of the release of Radhe and continued investments in ZEE5. Marketing costs in Q1FY21 was lower on account of much lower original content production.

ZEEL’s broadcast business network share dropped due to lockdown disruption and soft performance in some markets. On the other hand, its TV viewership again jumped during the quarter, though lower than Q1 of last year.

ZEEL’s OTT platform, ZEE5 gains its momentum again on the back of an expansive content catalogue. It closed June with 80.2mn global MAUs, 7.1mn global DAUs and 190 minutes average watch time per viewer per month. ZEE5’s Q1 Revenue and EBITDA (loss excludes costs incurred by the business on ZEEL network) stood at Rs.1,117mn and Rs. (2,033mn). The platform released 11 original shows and movies released during the quarter.

ZEE Music Company added ~3mn subscribers on YouTube. With 75mn+ subscribers, it is the second most subscribed Indian music channel on YouTube. To keep the ball rolling, ZMC is ramping up its content library by adding movies across Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Punjabi languages starting H2FY22.