NDTV's loss deepens over six-fold as production costs weigh

Indian news broadcaster NDTV posted its sixth consecutive quarterly loss on Friday, with a sixfold increase, due to higher production and marketing costs.

The company, primarily owned by Adani Group, has scaled up its operations over the past year by investing in distribution, digital infrastructure, brand building and new channel launches such as NDTV Marathi and NDTV World.

While such investments and moves led to a bottom-line loss in the year, “these foundational investments will yield strong returns in the years ahead,” the broadcaster said in an exchange filing.

Last week, Reliance Group-controlled Network18 Media, which owns both news and entertainment channels, posted a narrower quarterly loss after reining in its expenses.

NDTV reported a loss of 608.8 million rupees ($7.13 million) for the January-March quarter, compared with 84.6 million rupees a year earlier.

Total expenses of the broadcaster operating channels like NDTV 24×7 and NDTV India jumped 50%.

The broadcaster reported a 19% rise in operational revenue to 1.27 billion rupees but did not disclose the portion from advertising, typically the main revenue source for media companies.

The company’s shares dropped 4% ahead of results.

($1 = 85.3670 Indian rupees)