Despite a year marked by global economic instability and widespread industry layoffs, Asianet News Digital has remained resilient in its growth trajectory. Notably, digital operations have successfully navigated towards profitability, a remarkable feat amid challenging circumstances.
Asianet News Media and Entertainment Private Limited (AMEL) ended the last financial year with increased profitability in its digital business. This marked the second consecutive year where its online platform has returned positive EBITDA margins, having first become profitable in the financial year 2021-22.
In a year which saw turbulent economic conditions across the world where a plethora of industry bigwigs announced layoffs, Asianet News Digital continued on its growth journey and managed to steer its digital business towards profitability. This is primarily due to its high revenue growth along with strict measures of optimization of resources across various departments in the organization.
Highlighting the efforts that went behind the achievement, AMEL Chief Operating Officer, Samarth Sharma commented, “We are proud to deliver positive EBITDA for the second year in a row despite the macro-economic instability during the year. This is largely due to our growth in revenue and audience, which stem from the ability of our teams at Asianet News Digital to operate with a high degree of efficiency and to remain adaptable to the changes in market conditions. Would also like to thank our client and vendor partners, as without their support this would not have been possible. Extremely confident of scoring a hat-trick next year as we reinvest our profits in our people and strategic projects."
Neeraj Kohli, AMEL’s Chief Executive Officer, added, "I want to express my gratitude to our talented workforce for this remarkable accomplishment. We have always propagated sustainable growth through positive unit economics with our ARPUs being among the best in the industry. Being EBITDA positive for the second consecutive year has given us the confidence to push through new initiatives that focus on increasing the audience reach and engagement while delivering unparalleled value to our stakeholders."
In the current financial year, Asianet News Digital is recommitting its profit margins to fuel its expansion plans of going national and global in the upcoming quarters. Besides its prowess in South India, the company is also rapidly expanding in Hindi and English, which command a monthly active user base of over 30 million. It is also introducing several new products leveraging generative AI, machine learning, and first-party data to enhance user experience.
The AMEL group has a multi-media presence across the country in multiple languages via its TV Channels (Asianet News and Suvarna News), Print Publication (Kannada Prabha), Radio Channel (Indigo Music), and Digital platform in 7 languages (AsianetNews.com).