After a pandemic-stricken fiscal year, video production firm The Viral Fever has bounced back in FY22 with an operating income that grew over 2X. During FY22, TVF released several series such as Aspirants and Kota Factory — all of which went on to become hits.
The popularity of its different series helped the company grow their collection by 2.4X to Rs 76.8 crore in FY22 from Rs 32.15 crore in FY21, according to TVF’s annual financial statements with the Registrar of Companies.
License income from uploading shows, web series, videos and posts on OTT platforms such as Zee5, Amazon Prime, Sony LIV, and others formed around 66% of TVF’s total collections in FY22. Income from these surged 2.8X to Rs 50.63 crore in FY22.
Income from advertising and subscription fee collectively grew 22% to Rs 6.98 crore during FY22. The company also made Rs 19.19 crore from other operating activities in the last fiscal year.
Being a video streaming and production company, the cost of production of shows turned out to be the largest cost center for the Tiger Global-backed firm. This accounted for 52.2% of the overall cost and spiked 2.4X to Rs 38.3 crore in FY22.
Salaries and other employee-related costs for The Viral Fever barely grew 10% to Rs 20.62 during FY22. The company booked negative expenses of Rs 62.58 crore against adjustments of share-based payments (ESOPs) which we did not include in the calculations due to its non-cash nature.
Cloud service and advertising costs shrank 29.7% and 34.2% respectively to Rs 2.37 crore and Rs 2.04 crore during FY22. The company incurred Rs 2.23 crore on legal and professional fees which dragged overall costs up by 44.7% to Rs 73.43 crore in FY22.
The rise in scale with controlled expenses brought the Mumbai-based company in the black. It recorded Rs 5.72 crore in profit during FY22 as compared to a loss of Rs 14.31 crore in FY21. Its ROCE and EBITDA registered positively at 33.35% and 9.95%. On a unit level, it spent Re 0.96 to earn a single unit of operating revenue.
TVF’s numbers drive in just how tough, and fickle, the studio business can be. While commissioned shows bring in a level of predictability and stability to the business, it can also lead to the loss of major upsides when these shows turn hits, as some of its shows have done. That explains the firm’s multi platform approach of using YouTube as well as OTT platforms, or even its own app: TVF Play. Perhaps the biggest challenge will remain the pressure to keep churning out hits for its target audience of millennials, and people who wish they could remain one. One wonders if the long term target here is to build a strong enough library of hit shows that provide steady revenues from streaming, and then perhaps a buyout?
Source @Entrackr
