However no information was divulged as to the actual income received by the channel over the last ten months. According to the management the figures would be released by the company by the end of April'2001. Operations in UK and US put on the backburner The UK and US operations have been put on the back burner as the management felt that the prevailing situation was not ripe for another entertainment channel. At the same time the NRI population is not large enough to absorb these many channels. The management expects subscription revenues to be under pressure in these markets given the situation of glut.
Channels also have to contend with higher distribution and marketing cost.
Cash was not an issue since the company had nearly Rs450mn of cash in its kitty to fund the channel business. Also if need be, the parent company with its healthy cash reserves would fund the channel business. Its flagship program Suraag continues to earn TRP's ratings in excess of 12. According to the management DD has discontinued this practice from 1 st April 2001. Hence margins should start looking up from Q1FY2002.