Netflix India’s FY21 revenue zooms 66% to Rs 1529 crore

Netflix Entertainment Services India LLP, the India arm of SVOD giant Netflix, has reported a 66% growth in gross revenue at Rs 1529.36 crore for the fiscal ended 31st March as against Rs 923.33 crore in the previous fiscal. The revenue growth has come largely on the back of sustained membership growth as well as some ‘pull forward’ of new members due to Covid-19.

Netflix has four subscription plans in India starting with mobile plan which is priced at Rs 199 per month followed by basic plan (Rs 499/month), standard plan (Rs 649/month) and premium plan (Rs 799/month). As per Media Partners Asia (MPA) estimates, the platform has 5 million+ paid subscribers in India.

In a recent report, the MPA had said that Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix will grab 80% share of the Indian SVOD market which is estimated to reach 89 million subscribers by the year-end. The report further stated that the Indian SVOD subscriber base expanded 2.5X to reach 57 million in 2020.

According to financial data accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler, the firm’s total expenditure jumped to Rs 1551.84 crore from Rs 921.85 crore in the previous fiscal. Personnel expenses declined to Rs 68.35 crore from Rs 100.9 crore. Other expenses comprising distribution expenses and marketing spends stood at Rs 1466.87 crore compared to Rs 817.37 crore.

Incorporated on 12th April 2017, the company’s net profit increased to Rs 10.72 crore from Rs 8.91 crore.

Netflix declined to comment on its financials.

On a recent visit to India, Netflix Co-Founder, Chairman, and Co-CEO Reed Hastings had said that the company has pumped Rs 3000 crore in India in the last two years and plans to invest more in the coming years. He had also stated that Netflix has launched 70 originals in India so far, with 90 originals in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, Los Gatos Production Services India LLP, the company through which Netflix routes its content investments in the country, has reported gross turnover of Rs 470.52 crore in FY21 as against Rs 62.32 crore in FY20. Incorporated on 14th May 2019, the entity’s FY20 figures are only for four months of operations.

Its total expenditure stood at Rs 555.02 crore in FY21, compared to Rs 72.23 crore in FY20. Under expenditure, the major cost head was purchases made for resale, which stood at Rs 424.3 crore as against Rs 57.89 crore. Its net loss stood at Rs 77.19 crore during the fiscal under review, compared to Rs 6.9 crore in FY20. During the fiscal, the company had received contribution worth Rs 1650 crore compared to Rs 700 crore in FY20.

The firm’s inventories surged to Rs 976.79 crore in FY21 due to the increase in the volume of all content that is in the pipeline. In FY20, the inventories stood at Rs 179.65 crore. Inventory comprises owned content under development as well as licenced content. Grassrootjournalist