DB Corp has continued with its streak of better performance in the first half of FY24, said Girish Agarwal – Non-Executive Director, DB Corp, during the Q2 FY2024 earnings conference call. Agarwal said the group has been benefiting from the downward trend of newsprint prices.
According to Agarwal, the print media segment has, over the past few quarters, cemented its place as the most trusted source of news. “This positioning has helped create a virtuous cycle as advertisers continue to come to print and increase their sales and thereby increase their ad spend with us,” he said.
While speaking about the impact of the absence of government advertisements from three states going in for polls, Agarwal noted that he wouldn’t be able to give exact numbers, but the impact would not be very substantial.
On the auto category, Agarwal highlighted that the sector, for the last 2 - 3 years, had been facing issues with regard to delivery of vehicles, so they were not advertising. “But now they have started and we see a good growth coming from there,” he said.
On the newsprint prices, Agarwal shared that the numbers have already come down considerably overall. Last year, in the same quarter, the newsprint price were Rs 63,500 per tonne which has now come down to Rs 51,500 per tonne.
"In Q3, I don’t expect the newsprint prices to come down further. Because of Diwali, we are using much better newsprint quality for the advertisements. Also, the newsprint mix will change in this quarter; we will use more imported and high-quality ones. But going forward, I believe another 4-6% advantage should happen with us."
During the call, Agarwal also clarified that the company has no plan to do any acquisition business on the digital side because they already are on a particular path and are committed to that.
"We are working towards it and we are seeing good results coming out of that. As far as revenue is concerned, right now the size is too small. And maybe in the next couple of quarters, the numbers should firm up more."
On the radio's growth, he shared that it is largely driven by innovations, activations, non-airtime business improvements, as well as the yield improvements. "We are working very closely with our advertisers to drive better value to them by better programming. And that’s the way for radio’s growth. It has to grow in innovation as it has no scope for adding more inventory. And for the last several quarters, we’ve been growing basically from our innovations and a little bit of improvement in our yields as well."
During the call Pawan Agarwal, Deputy Managing Director, DB Corp, shared that Dainik Bhaskar continues its track record of delivering strong operating results for eight consecutive quarters helped by strong growth of advertisement revenue, softening of newsprint prices, its circulation strategy and well thought out cost control and optimization measures. "These all have helped in expanding our margins.
