Dear Shareholders
The year gone by has been a story of transformation and putting
together fundamental building blocks for creating a strong foundation for long-term
success.
As we embrace the changes brought upon by the digital era, a multitude
of opportunities are unfolding before us. As a diversified media organisation with a
strong presence in both traditional and new media segments, we see this as a chance for us
to lead the transformative journey ahead.
Viacom18 recently completed the strategic partnership with Reliance,
Bodhi Tree and Paramount Global, with a focus on this transformation. The collaboration
will enable Viacom18 to make investments in scaling up its digital, sports, and regional
entertainment franchise. It has the potential to catapult Viacom18 to the topmost echelons
of the Indian media landscape. We saw initial glimpse of this strategy in action with the
success of IPL. It is truly a landmark achievement for our digital platform, JioCinema, to
become the #1 in the country in such a short timeframe.
Our innovation in sports programming was one of the key drivers of this
success, and we are extending these innovations to our entertainment offering as well, to
make our digital platform the default destination for users looking for any type of
content. The new benchmarks created by us have set the marker for us and our endeavour
will be to continually disrupt the market with new ideas.
A combination of quality content, distribution reach and technology
infrastructure will be the drivers of growth for our entertainment business.
Our news business delivered phenomenal operating performance in the
last fiscal. Climbing to the top of the rankings in each of the big markets, we have
fortified our position as the preferred news network of India. Our focus on increasing
coverage and providing multi-faceted analysis to our audience have been the key drivers of
our growth. With an eye on the future, we have built a state-of-the-art integrated
workspace which will house all our news divisions under one roof. An advanced facility
with cutting edge technology infrastructure, modern design and innovative features that
cater to the needs of businesses and employees, it will be an important enabler for the
success of our business in today's dynamic and competitive landscape. We are also working
closely with the digital platforms which are part of the Group to reach consumers at every
available touchpoint and to fulfill our promise of being ‘consumer first'.
FY 2022-23 was a challenging year as macro-economic headwinds posed
tough questions, not just to us, but to most of the consumer companies.
Your Company delivered a strong operating performance across verticals,
but it did not translate into commensurate improvement in financial metrics due to a soft
monetisation environment. While revenue increased by 7%, EBITDA declined as the Company
made substantial investments in new initiatives. We believe that Indian media industry has
a long runway for growth and investments are required to create strong roots which connect
with consumers and help realise benefits from this opportunity. With a presence across
genres, we are in a strong position to bring audiences, from across the country, into our
fold and keep them engaged by continuously serving them quality content that is
contextually relevant and spread across diverse genres.
An impressive start to FY 2023-24 has set the tone for the year ahead.
Economic conditions for growth of the media sector look more promising than same time last
year. Our businesses are in a strong position to leverage the improvement in macro
factors. IPL getting more viewers on digital than TV has really marked an inflection point
and our news business is stronger than ever. We have also onboarded some of the top talent
from across the industry to help us in our transformation journey of becoming a technology
driven organisation. We are working with an unwavering commitment to make our platforms
the default choice of consumers by harnessing the combined strength of all our assets.
Adil zainulbhai
Chairman