Star India's sports revenue fell 17% to $105M
Star India's sports division reduced operating loss by 73% to $27M in the quarter ending March 30, citing decreased expenses from non-renewal of BCCI
Sumit Rawat
Reports indicate that broadcaster Star India's operating loss in its sports division surged by 50%, reaching $342 million for the six months ending March 30, compared to $228 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
During this period, India sports revenue experienced a notable decline of 17%, totaling $105 million. However, operating expenses for the quarter saw a significant decrease of 48%, down to $102 million. Despite this reduction, ad revenue for the quarter saw a modest increase of 9% to $37 million, while affiliate revenue remained unchanged at $63 million.
For the first six months, the company's ad revenue more than doubled to $221 million, while affiliate revenue decreased by 3% to $128 million.
Despite the overall loss, Star India's sports business managed to narrow its operating loss by an impressive 73% to $27 million for the quarter ended March 30. This improvement was attributed to lower programming and production costs, stemming from the non-renewal of Board of Control for Cricket in India rights. However, increased costs for Indian Premier League matches, due to airing more matches in the current quarter compared to the previous year, partially offset this decline.
The Walt Disney-owned company reported a 40% increase in operating revenue from the sports business, totaling $504 million. However, operating expenses surged by 51% to $786 million.
In its Q2 results, Walt Disney highlighted that the higher programming and production costs at Star India were primarily due to increased rights costs for the International Cricket Council (ICC) and, to a lesser extent, Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket programming in the current period compared to the previous year. The rise in ICC cricket programming costs was attributed to both an increase in average costs per match and a higher number of matches aired. Similarly, the increase in IPL cricket programming costs was due to broadcasting more matches.
These cost increases were partially mitigated by the absence of expenses for Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) cricket programming in the previous fiscal year, as the rights were not renewed.
