Key highlights

• During the quarter, Radio industry grew the fastest at around 15%, compared to the other Entertainment and Communication (E&C) medium be it Television, which grew by 12%, and Newspaper Print, which grew by about 2-3%.

• Though there are news of early sign of slowdown at consumer end and thus in turn concern on the advertisement and spend expenditure to be incurred by the consumption lead industries, but radio is still only a total of 4% of total E&C industry. Also as per the management, if one passes on creative and new ideas, the clients are ready to spend more on radio, given it has not allocated much budget to Radio.

• The entire Retail segment contribution in the overall Radio has crossed nearly 50%, which was about 35% earlier.

• Part of the Radio growth during Q3 FY'13, was also helped by the Gujarat elections, which added about 25% more to the normal Gujarat Radio revenues during the quarter. Traditionally election season is a good year for the company and management expects 2014 year where general elections year will happen, also to stand apart the rest of the years. As per the management, the importance of Radio, in elections is getting noticed, as the revenue from Gujarat elections alone, surpassed the entire general elections 2009 additional revenues.

• During the quarter, the inventory utilization blend stood at about 84% and average rate stood at Rs 960, which was more or less flat y.o.y.

• Overall, management expects to grow by about 10% in Q4 FY'13.

• Company has cash and equivalents of about Rs 385 crore, which is currently deployed in debt instruments. The board has directed the management to take some strategic call on the same.

• As per the management, while it is difficult to frame a date on the Phase 3 roll out of Radio, based on their interaction with the Government officials, the roll out plans are of prime importance to the government and soon, the action will be taken on this.