AsianetNews’ Digital business turns profitable

Asianet News Media and Entertainment, a leader in the Indian media industry, has closed the financial year 2021-22 EBITDA positive for its digital business. The group has multi-media presence across the country in multiple languages via its Digital platform (asianetnews.com, indigomusic.com), TV channels (Asianet News and Asianet Suvarna News), Print publication (Kannada Prabha) and Radio channels (Indigo).

On the back of significant revenue growth and cost optimization, the digital business of AMEL delivered positive EBITDA for the first time. During the year, the company has re-organized many parts of its business with a focus on increasing ARPUs and on delivering positive unit economics.

Rajesh Kalra, executive chairman of the group spoke about how tough times brought people together to deliver despite all odds. “It has been phenomenal to witness how our teams came together during the most trying times to optimize and grow at a record rate. The determination and discipline that our hands-on leadership team and our immensely talented colleagues have tirelessly demonstrated has resulted in this outstanding performance. I am confident that this is just the start of much greater things to come for the group”, he said.

Ruchir Khanna, chief operating officer at Asianet News, added, “FY-22 was a tough year on multiple fronts. Many of us lost near and dear ones, but the way our teams with complementary skill-sets have supported each other and remained focused towards our common goal was heartening to see. Top/bottom line growth is only a reflection of a healthy ecosystem that we have been able to form in the last year. We will continue to pull on our P&L levers in the coming year, and launch several new products that will drive our audience reach, engagement and retention”

Commenting on this achievement for AMEL, Samarth Sharma, chief business officer, said, “The last FY posed several challenges at both personal and professional levels. The synergies drawn from the adversity that the teams witnessed last year has translated into our digital business delivering record revenue There have been several innovative revenue initiatives from our teams across the globe that contributed to this success and we’d like to thank our client, agency, data and intelligence partners for showing faith in us in our journey.”

Besides strengthening its Indian language footprint across the country, Asianet News has also made significant investments in English and Hindi to extend its dominance pan India. BCS Bureau