Entertainment Network (India) Ltd
NSE:ENIL
Utilize notes to systematically review your investment decisions. By reflecting on past outcomes, you can discern effective strategies and identify those that underperformed. This continuous feedback loop enables you to adapt and refine your approach, optimizing for future success.
Each note serves as a learning point, offering insights into your decision-making processes. Over time, you'll accumulate a personalized database of knowledge, enhancing your ability to make informed decisions quickly and effectively.
With a comprehensive record of your investment history at your fingertips, you can compare current opportunities against past experiences. This not only bolsters your confidence but also ensures that each decision is grounded in a well-documented rationale.
Do you really want to delete this note?
This action cannot be undone.
52 Week Range |
176.32
346.2
|
Price Target |
|
We'll email you a reminder when the closing price reaches INR.
Choose the stock you wish to monitor with a price alert.
This alert will be permanently deleted.
Earnings Call Analysis
Q3-2024 Analysis
Entertainment Network (India) Ltd
Entertainment Network (India) Limited (ENIL) had a remarkable quarter with its revenue experiencing a robust year-on-year growth of 21%. This surge was driven by exceptional performance across both their Free Commercial Time (FCT) and non-FCT segments. ENIL's revenue market share reached a new height of 27.7%, marking a notable improvement over the previous year, and the company's strong revenue further bolstered its EBITDA margin to 33% with a significant growth of 36.4% year-on-year.
While the non-FCT segment excluding digital soared with a 35% year-on-year growth, the digital revenue contributed INR 11.4 crores, accounting for 13% of radio revenues with continuous investments to refine the segment. ENIL's acquisition of music streaming service Gaana is aimed at enhancing their digital transformation strategy, although it's too early to disclose further plans. The international business, post-restructuring, appears to have stabilized and is contributing to ENIL's sequential positive performance in profit after tax (PAT), with quarter 3 FY '24 posting INR 21.6 crores compared to INR 10.4 crores in the same quarter last year.
ENIL maintains a robust balance sheet with INR 262 crores in cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2023. The company continues to leverage its position as a leader by maintaining reasonable volume at elevated price points compared to its competition, ensuring room for future volume-led growth.
Post-COVID recovery has largely been driven by volume rather than price across all traditional media, including radio. Although ENIL aims for a balanced mix, the market dictates a preference for volume-led growth at present. The company's overall utilisation stands at around 80%, but with varying levels in different tiers of cities. The expectation is that prices will start increasing in the upcoming festive season as industry volume maximization starts approaching its limits.
Despite the perceived consumption slowdown in certain sectors, ENIL finds that radio, with its hyper-local appeal, continues to attract advertisers. Categories such as real estate, auto, government, and education are contributing significantly to the advertising revenue. The company believes in the robustness of the Indian consumption story and is hopeful about increased radio spending, especially with upcoming elections stirring the market.
Gaana represents a strategic move for ENIL, allowing the company to venture into the subscription-based digital music landscape. The business case for Gaana hinges on the conversion of free subscribers to paid subscriptions, leveraging ENIL's two decades of music curation expertise to offer superior playlists and music discovery experiences. The company is working on technological improvements since the acquisition, confident in the potential owing to the large untapped subscriber base. ENIL's approach is not to rely on ad-based free music but to firmly establish a sustainable subscription model.
ENIL is actively working towards a more multi-platform business model, with a goal for digital revenues to constitute 25-30% of radio revenues in two years. By moving beyond traditional radio towards a diversified set of offerings, the company aims for an eventual balance where 50% of revenues are non-radio. This shift is reflective of the evolving media consumption patterns and ENIL's response to the changing advertising landscape.
The event side of ENIL's business has seen a healthy growth of 35% this quarter, reinforced by strong festive performances. With a strategic focus on selecting the right markets and event types, the company maintains a balanced growth approach between ticketing revenue and sponsorship. Despite some market pressures, the recovery post-COVID looks promising for event-driven revenue, with a rising trend in experiential consumer engagement observed across the industry.
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening, and welcome to Entertainment Network (India) Limited Q3 FY '24 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Ms. Runjhun Jain from EV Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you, Manisha. I'm Runjhun from E&Y Investor Relations. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Q3 FY '24 Earnings Call of Entertainment Network (India) Limited. To take you through the results and answer your questions today, we have management team from the company, here represented by Mr. Yatish Mehrishi, Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Sanjay Ballabh, Chief Financial Officer.
The financial results and the presentation has already been uploaded on the company's website and on the exchanges. Should you need any further information, you can reach out to us at EY IR team, and we would be happy to send it over to you.
Before we proceed with this call, a disclaimer, please do know that anything said on this call during the course of introduction and in the document, which reflects the outlook towards the future or which should be considered as a certain forward-looking statements must be viewed in conjunction with the risks that the company faces and may not be updated from time to time.
With that said, I will now hand over the call to Mr. Yatish. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Runjhun. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Entertainment Network (India) Limited, I extend a warm welcome to all of you for joining our quarter 3 and 9 months FY '24 earnings call. I hope you've had a chance to review our financial results, but let me provide a concise overview. I'm delighted to report a strong quarter with our top line witnessing a substantial 21% year-on-year growth. This robust performance is attributed to a stellar performance in both our segments, FCT and non-FCT. Our FCT segment has exceeded industry benchmarks, underscoring our leadership position both in volume and value.
In quarter 3 FY '24, our revenue market share rose to 27.7%, marking a significant improvement of 110 basis points year-on-year. The impressive top line growth further translated to a substantial enhancement in ENIL's EBITDA margin reaching 33% with an outstanding 36.4% year-on-year growth, delivering an EBITDA of INR 44.3 crores over last year of INR 32.4 crores.
Excluding digital, the non-FCT segment recorded an impressive 35% year-on-year growth with a robust EBITDA margin of 34%. Our digital revenue stands at INR 11.4 crores, constituting 13% of our radio revenues. We have additionally invested INR 6.4 crores in the digital segment in this quarter.
As you are aware, we completed the acquisition of the music streaming service Gaana on December 1, 2023. We are currently in the process of revamping and rebranding it to align with our digital transformation strategy. However, it will be premature to provide specific details, but we'll be very happy to share more information in the upcoming future quarters.
Our commitment to sustainable and profitable growth extends to our international business as well. Post restructuring, our international business has stabilized and is now growing profitably. I'm thrilled to share the path for the company, excluding digital, was reported at INR 21.6 crores in quarter 3 FY '24 compared to INR 10.4 crores in quarter 3 FY '23, marking the second consecutive quarter with a positive PAT.
For December YTD 9 months PAT, excluding digital stands at INR 32.9 crores versus a loss of INR 2.5 crores last year. Even including digital PAT -- even during digital, PAT for the 9 months this year stands at INR 18 crores positive versus a loss of INR 18.1 crores last year in the 9 months. Our balance sheet remains robust with cash and cash equivalents totaling to INR 262 crores as of December 31, 2023.
Looking ahead, our primary objective remains the maximization of our shareholder value on the back of sustainable growth and profitability.
With that, I would like to invite any questions you may have. Thank you very much. Over to you, Manisha.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Deepak Shankar from Trustline.
Congrats for the great set of numbers. Firstly, can you provide the breakdown of this non-FCT revenues in terms of platform ramping and activation and...
You want the digital, correct?
Yes, yes.
So digital is, as I said, it's 13% of our radio revenues. You would remember last year it was -- last quarter, it was about 8% to 9%. This year, we have delivered almost about INR 12 crores of overall digital revenue with digital platform contributing INR 6.79 crores and digital component in other segments is about INR 4.91 crores.
Okay. So the platforms last time when you discussed it was around INR 1 crore, which has grown INR to 6.79 crores. Are the classification has changed, though?
So it just includes Gaana also for 1 month. Gaana, we acquired on December 1. So this includes the revenue from Gaana also.
Okay. Okay. And what about the MMS?
Revenues is INR 17.5 crores against last year of INR 14.75 crores.
Okay. And how do you see these government ads during the last quarter and even Q4, we have seen quite a sharp increase in radios nowadays. So are we seeing a sharp growth from government tax? And also in general ad cycle, are we seeing the turn towards radio now?
Yes. So government ads in quarter 3, we see an increase in contribution against last year of about 10% has now become about 13% contribution for government. And also, you have realized last quarter, we had said government pricing has also changed, that EVP pricing has changed. So that has also benefited us.
But we are seeing robust government spends coming from both state and central government. Only thing in quarter 4, government spends will continue deeper till the time the elections get announced. Once the election code of conduct comes in, the election spend will have to be stopped because of the code of conduct. So the government spend will have to stop because of the code of conduct, and then we'll see some election spend coming in. So you will see government spend stalling for a time being till the elections happen.
Okay. Okay. And general ad cycle positive turning towards radio segment?
Yes. So for us, the way we look at it is the number of clients are high. The volumes are also very high. What we would ideally want is a little less volume and a better price. But as we see right now, it will take some more quarters to look at a better pricing.
So -- but having said that, the business volumes are very, very high. It's higher than pre-COVID levels. The business moved towards more retail, which is the way true to the medium. Radio is the hyper local medium, and now we are seeing a lot of retail brands coming on board against corporate clients earlier. So the contribution of retail has now gone to about 65% compared to what it used to be 50%. So the mix of clients is changing. We're getting more local business.
The next question is from the line of [Urmi Khania] from Robo Capital.
I have a few questions. My first question is there any idea on the past recommendations such as once releasing FY '17 or FY '19? Have they been approved yet? And if yes, then when have they been approved? And second is what is the probability of the acceptance of the most recent recommendation?
You are saying the -- which recommendations you are talking about, Urmi?
Delinking of remaining channels of Phase III from technology ones.
Urmi, I'm not aware of such recommendations. There were 4 recommendations TRAI sent recently to the government, which did not include this. But there was 4 recommendations, one was news, one was radio to be mandatory in the smartphones, then there was decouplement of revenues, the license fee to 2 revenues and not to the [NOTF]. So these are the 4 recommendations, which had gone to government. We still await to hear from the government.
And I believe with the election coming soon, it may not happen immediately, but it happen post the elections.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Dhwanil Desai from Turtle Capital.
Congratulations for a very good set of numbers. Sir, my first question is, generally, in the past commentary also, we have always mentioned that in the radio industry typically, the volume comes first and the realizations follow. So what is the utilization level across our Phase II and Phase III stations? And how do you look at the rate increase coming in?
Thank you, Dhwanil. See, yes, you're right. So right now, post-COVID, we have seen a huge volume growth. All growth have come via volume and not through prices. They can beating across not just radio, but all traditional mediums. So it's not only to the radio, but all traditional medium I have seen a price decline across the last 3, 4 years.
Radio has taken a long to get the price back, and I believe the price may not come back to the same level soon. We will see some growth happening in the next festive season. I don't see in the next 2 quarters the price change much. It will still be a volume-led growth. We still have a lot of headroom and a lot of capacity available to generate larger volumes -- to manage larger volumes.
We believe the first change in pricing will look coming in the next festival, which could be the quarter 2, quarter 3, which is August, when the festive season starts, that is when we'll see some reversal on the price happening. Till that time, it will still be volume-led growth. We are still in a healthy space.
Our overall capacity is still only 80%, and this is at 30 minutes an hour when I calculate. And if I look at batch 1, batch 2 stations, Tier 1, Tier 2, they are at 60% only. The metros or the top 25 at about 100%. But when I say 100%, it's only 13 minutes of inventory in an hour. So we still have a lot of headroom to drive volume-led growth. But as I said in my opening remarks also, you would have ideally loved little less volume and more price, better price. But we'll have to live with it for the next 6 to 8 months till the price starts changing.
Okay. Got it, sir. Second question, sir. We continue to hear from various sectors that consumption side that is slowed down, and that is impacting everybody. So I mean, generally, again, when the times are tough because we have the highest impact on the money spent, advertising moves to radio. So are we benefiting from that? And what are we doing to ensure that when actually times are good, we are able to sustain those volumes?
So Dhwanil, I agree. So radio, as I said, move towards being a more a hyper-local medium than what it was pre-COVID. So now we're getting -- we are attracting more advertiser at a local level. I still believe in the Indian consumption story and at a local level, it is still very robust when you low look at stock fronts and all. There is some stress in rural sectors, what we keep reading about it when you look at FMCG categories. But FMCG categories when I look at levers and all have not been advertising on radio for the last few years.
What we see as big categories are real estate, big time, auto, government, education, they are really, really spending big. And if you look at real estate segment is doing really well. And we believe when you read commentary about any real estate listed players, everybody is very confident about the real estate industry in the next 3, 4 years.
So I look at the categories, which are good for radio are still very robust. The other good point for us is they are never dependent on 1 just category. Like TV, if you follow, TV is too dependent on FMCG, which contributes 60%, 65%, or 60% at least. In our case, none of the categories are bigger than 15% at a national level. So for us, it helps us manage it. Even if one of 2 categories don't do well, we are still better off.
Having said that, the consumption story, I still believe in India is still very robust. And we believe with the elections coming in, the spends will continue and radio to its medium of hyper-local will be able to do better.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Anant Shirgaonkar from Newport Capital LLP.
So congratulations, wonderful set of results. We are shareholders and we are delighted to see the results. I would just like to understand a few things more about how the scenario is changing in the advertising industry when it comes to radio?
So just to give a background. Last few years, we've been bombarded by this narrative that digital will be the only medium which matters. TV doesn't matter and even the radio doesn't matter. But your results obviously show that your utilization levels are moving up, not only yours, competition is also moving up.
So can you explain to us what is happening from the advertiser's point of view? And if the narrative is so tilted to the digital, how are these utilization levels moving up? Why are advertisers coming back to radio, et cetera?
Yes. So it's a very interesting stage. Digital, what's happening is most of the digital revenues goes to Google and Meta, which everybody knows they look at almost 80% of the digital advertising revenue goes to these 2 platforms.
Having said that, if you look at the Indian media scene or any media scene, the behavior is, yes, it is moving to a streaming platform. You and me will say who watches TV, but we watch only connected TVs. Correct, we watch only Netflix and Amazon Prime and stuff. Or maybe when you look at radio equally sometimes, it becomes Spotify or Gaana or it is Saavn. Having said that, we're still consuming TV also on the connected TV. It's like the medium is still TV, but you might be watching on a different platform. So it's very interesting time.
It's like consumers are trying to move towards subscribe things, but they're not paying for subscription. The advertisers are not able to communicate on a digital medium on a Netflix because there's no ads, no opportunity to advertise. So they are looking at other mediums. You can only advertise to an extent on digital medium. When you look at local and where radio benefit is because there are local players, the SME guys who don't advertise so much on digital, they look at traditional medium.
And to give you a very anecdotal, may not be a very research and scientific answer, but Indian feel -- like when you go to grocery, you want to feel the wheat and buy, or feel the cloth and buy. Similarly, when you look -- when you advertise, you want to hear or you want your friend to hear or see the ad on print. In digital, it is very difficult to figure out where did my ad play. So that feel when a person spends on its own. So I'm saying this is -- it's not like a very scientific. But when we speak to people, when you speak to clients, why do they advertise, where they're looking at it, these are the type of things we see.
Even when you look at music artists, they will say that Spotify, they're the biggest stream. But who is listening? They're not very sure. But on radio, they catch themselves. So it becomes very -- the mediums help understand the importance of it and how it's delivering. So yes, there are challenges. I'm not trying to say digital is not a challenge. It is a challenge. It's not about digital, the technology is taking over a lot of things. So it's not that we are shocking away, and that's the reason we have looked at Gaana also.
So the way we look at it is, yes, the traditional medium are here to stay. It may not be growth at what it used to be 10 years back. It will be a mixed growth. And we're looking at radio [indiscernible] growth, plus do lot of events, multimedia solutions, what we do, and also look at the subscription game on Gaana.
So that is the way we look at. And it's interesting time to be in right now, where both client and advertisers are still figuring out which is the best medium to deliver their objectives. I may not be able to answer everything, but it's a very interesting and challenging times to be in media industry right now, Anant.
Right. So one of the things I had read was that digital, obviously, many people say about how digital growth is playing out. But when it comes to some of the other mediums like radio, from the advertiser's point of view, because they are priced cheaper and the reach is big enough, the bang for the buck could be higher when it comes to radio. Is that a sound logic?
Yes. So when I look at radio, radio is always good as it's a passive medium. So it will always work well as a frequency medium, and we have to promote or a tactical campaign. It may not be the best medium when you want to do a brand launch. Because it's a passive medium, it runs in a background, you know, driving a car, it's on the back. You're working in office or at home, you're playing the radio. So it works as a frequency medium. So it works really well with any medium.
So if you do a print ad, then radio is a good frequency builder and a reminder. Similarly, when you do a large digital campaign, radio will always help because you are on a commute, you're listening to radio or when you are at home, working in a kitchen, if the housewife is working, it will always be a reminder medium.
And yes, at the right price, only for the specific city, it is the most, I would not be cheaper, but the most efficient medium to work because it doesn't have any spillover. Digital benefit is -- there is no spillover, because you can target really well. In traditional medium, if you do a print in, say, Bombay and you want to only Thane audience, you are actually spending more than what you want to be.
Compared to that, the radio is much cheaper than print and that's the reason it's more effective. And if you don't want to target many cities, and want to target very specific city, radio works really well. And that's the reason, I believe, radio in a local level, for regional clients, it works really well.
Right. Got it. That is useful. That's useful. So just 1 or 2 smaller questions. So one on the utilization levels, so you said you're at 80%, your competition, the smaller ones could be at 60%. Like at what level of utilization do you think for the industry as a whole, do you think the price size start coming in?
See, we are still the lowest. If you look at competition, they will be much higher on this because we still -- we are premium to all the competition. Our pricing will still be holding at least 25% more, 25% at least, if not more, will be at least 20% price hike from the next best. If I look at all the players, there will be very, very high pricing.
So our volumes are still lower than competition. But as I said, for us, the headrooms are available, because we have always maintained a very low volume thing. It's ironical and it's a double-edged sword. If I keep increasing volumes and the listenership will drop because as a consumer, you and me don't want -- you come to radio to listen to music. If I play more ads, you will not like the medium. And then you will force people to move to streaming services like a Gaana or Saavn or a Spotify. So you need to be careful.
I believe competition will max up in the next 2, 3 quarters. And that's the reason generally, price hikes happen in media industry in festive. And that's what my assumption and my hypothesis is the next festive we will see some price hike happening as industry will max out on the volume or my competition will max out. I have volume available, so I can garner more share. I'm a leader with a very large network.
So for us, we are very nicely placed compared to competition. If you look at certain competition, some competition have not done well in this quarter, some have done reasonably well. So we will see some contribution might be maxing out in the next quarter, next couple of quarters.
Perfect. And last question, so on Gaana acquisition, can you just explain the business case to the extent that you want to reveal what exactly are you trying to play through this acquisition? Is it just the subscriber growth and subscription growth because that could be really long term, people don't really want to pay, as you yourself mentioned. So what exactly is the play in Gaana?
Yes. So you're right. There is ability to pay, the willingness to pay is not there. It's not that people are not able to pay the money. We are -- our asking is right now INR 299 for a year, which is like a couple of -- less than a cup of coffee charge at Starbucks, correct?
So it's more about a willingness to pay rather than the ability to pay. What we're looking at Gaana as a strategy is, yes, radio is there as a medium. We're looking at Gaana as a pure subscription model. We're not here to do free music. Music cost a lot. So then I don't think people -- people should come back and pay for the music. If they pay for movies, they pay for everything. They have been given a habit of everything available free.
But if you look at the price, it's not very, very high. Look at -- Anant there are 200 million free subscribers, music subscribers in the country as of today, or maybe a year back, it could have grown a little more. But if you look at overall subscription industry is 8 million. So the way I look at it is an opportunity and not look at thinking people don't pay.
People will over a period time pay, because it's not huge money. You have to show value to them. You have to show why they should be paying more? Can I give the best playlist. The way we're working for this is -- Mirchi has been curators of music for last 2 decades. Till streaming came in, Mirchi was that people were discovering music. We were the best music FM company, right?
So can I use technology like AI or recommendation engines plus human intervention and give the best playlist to be people, give the best experience on music? Can I help them discover music better? There is Tsunami of content, correct? If you look at -- today also Netflix, you don't know what to consume. Similarly, when you go to Spotify, you need help, what should I listen to? How do you discover music? So if I can give that with our media strength being present in 63 cities and with 73 frequencies in all parts of the country, we understand the nuance of every market.
India is a complex country. Kanpur is very different from Lucknow and Lucknow is very different Patna. Within 100 kilometers, behavior change, consumer preferences changes. We understand being present in this industry for last 2 decades, understand the music well. We believe we are in well place to understand this. And we are very clear. We don't want to go free. We don't want to burn money. We want to make it happen with a subscription story only at the right price and give value to the consumer.
And we believe with the radio and Gaana together, it helps. I can make radio available on Gaana. What other factor, Anant, you look at is radio today, which one of the recommission has gone from TRAI also is all smartphones don't have a radio. Like an Apple phone doesn't have a radio. Now if I want an Apple consumer to consume radio on the move, I can have a Gaana app on the Apple phone, and I have my radio part of it. So I get my longevity of radio also and also play in the subscription market.
If you look at today's subscription market also, it is playing out well. Spotify, if you're consumer, if you're a free consumer, you would have seen a lot of restrictions coming on Spotify. All services are looking at moving towards subscription.
YouTube has got the same problem. When you say radio plays lot of ad, today, you cannot consume one video or song without one ad coming in. So people will get, have we moved to -- till they were getting fee music with very less ad, they were not ready to pay. The money required -- amount required is not very high. So we believe it will change.
There's huge opportunity. As I said, 8 million versus 200 million is a huge opportunity to drive. So that's what we're banking on. We believe, yes, it's going to take a little bit bigger to be patient. It will take some time. We are still working on the tech because nothing has happened on Gaana for the last 1 year. We have worked on it for the last couple of months. We know what are the challenges we're working on it. And hopefully, in the coming quarters, we'll be able to share some more details on it. Right now, it's too premature to share some numbers on this. But we believe we have a good opportunity to drive this business together.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of [Subrato] from Mount Intra Finance.
Yes. So sir, just first one, just one bookkeeping question. In your this year's result, depreciation is a little bit lower. So any reason for that? Whereas amortization is a little bit higher. So any reason for that, sir?
Can you just repeat -- you said depreciation is lower and?
Like amortization charge is a little bit higher, vis-a-vis, last year, at least this has come down, vis-a-vis, last year. So any reason for that, total depreciation and amortization also, which was INR 22 crores and now it is around INR 19.89 crores?
Yes, give me 1 second. Sanjay will just answer.
So just give me a minute. So [Subrato] there are 2 reasons basically. There is no major CapEx, which we have commented during the current financial year and current quarter.
Also, a majority of my station. If you look into the station mix are beyond the 50% mark of the license period. As you know that in radio industry, what we do, we do invest upfront, and then we start doing the amortization of the initial CapEx which we have done. Now most of our migrated stations and Spotify big stations, that is past 7.5 years mark and therefore, now -- starting now till it becomes 0, the depreciation will actually start falling quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.
Okay. Now like I'm following your company for some time. So it's a great recovery to be really honest. So now, sir, would you throw some light on the digital side. Like what are our -- like team we are thinking. What is our plan in terms of monetization? What will be our effort on that side? Like may not be today, but in future at what like level we would try to monetize it, or what is our strategy on that side. That's my only question for this.
[Subrato] the thing is see -- till last quarter our digital revenues as percentage of radio revenue is about 10%. We have moved to over 13%. Our aim is, in 2 years, if digital revenues can become 25% to 30% of our radio revenues, that will be the first milestone we want to do it as we move towards the more multi-platform entertainment company rather than the digital company, just a radio company. So we have moved from radio to multimedia solutions to activations. Now we have got -- then we started digital advertisement.
Now we started doing Gaana also. So the way we want to look at it, over a period of 3 to 5 years, we want to have radio revenues about 50% and non-radio revenues about 50%. But the first milestone could be digital as a percentage of radio revenue could be about 25% to 30%.
Okay. Perfect, sir. Sir, can you just give some update on the activity side, like outdoor activity like solution business, some update on that side, sir?
So [Subrato], so we have given the details of those activities. If you are looking into exactly which activities and what event, et cetera, we have done. So we have uploaded the details of those, along with photos in our Investor Day. So...
Yes. Yes, I have seen that. My only point is more on the like in terms of numbers. Because last time, few quarters back, like our digital side, and particularly events and all those things was not pickup. So in the...
We've seen a 35% growth this quarter. But having said that, this year, there has been a festive shift. But even if I look at quarter 2 plus quarter 3, we're still growing a healthy, seeing 16% to 18% growth in the event side of business. Event side business, different type of event business we're looking at. Some markets are doing well. Some markets are still under pressure.
As you know, some of the categories, when you look at the macro economy also, some of the categories are not doing well. But for example, our Navratri event has done really well. Our festive properties in Calcutta have done really well. Second half is generally pretty heavy on events. We see some balancing coming up. We see a healthy growth in the event side of business.
This quarter has been really, really well compared to last year. And we believe -- we have firm belief that event business is here to stay for us. Important is that we are delivering a healthy margin also. It is not just about driving more revenue, but it's critical is to deliver a very healthy margin.
So if you look at our EBITDA margin also on event business, it's almost about 34%. So we are confident about it. But yes, there are certain markets, certain categories, which are still not conducive to events. So we need to pick and choose the right events going forward.
Okay. But has situation has improved, vis-a-vis, last year, at least?
Yes. So on event side, it has improved. People are looking at more experiential. People are going to concerts. So that's more ticketing revenue. If you look at concerts or look at festivals, if you're in Bombay, you would have seen a Lollapalooza or any concept, you will see more crowd going. So the tickets revenue going up, but the sponsorship is still not there.
Corporates are looking at more buck -- more return from what they've spent. So they're not looking at 1-day event. So you have to be careful with the type of event you choose and the type of market you choose. People are going there in festivals, so ticketing revenue coming in. But as you would know, ticketing revenue are not the most predictable revenue. You never know till the last moment.
So it has to be a healthy mix of sponsorship and ticketing revenue. But having said that, yes, it has been an uptick after COVID. This has been a much better year after COVID in terms of events across the board, not just for us, but across the board. So yes, it's a healthy sign.
[Operator Instructions] As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you very much for joining this call. We remain confident about the future results, and we remain committed into delivering maximizing shareholder value with sustainable profitable results. Thank you very much once again for joining this call.
On behalf of Entertainment Network (India) Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.