NDTV has decided to halt the business operations of Profit, the fledgling business news channel. In a statement sent to the stock exchanges, the company informed that business news programming will be transferred to NDTV24*7. “This will mean suspending the current trading hours programming on Profit while Prime will continue as a channel,” said the company.

However, NDTV did not rule out the possibility of reviving the channel at an appropriate stage. Speaking to exchange4media in May, NDTV’s Director – Finance & Group CFO Saurav Banerjee had conceded that the performance of Profit had been suboptimal. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017, NDTV’s top line fell by by 7.2% from Rs 577.12 crore to Rs 535.21 crore.

Though the company was able to significantly cut down on their costs from Rs 645.23 crore to Rs 593.02 crore, it continued to be in losses. Last year, the group witnessed a leadership change at the topmost level with KVL Narayan Rao replacing Vikram Chandra as Group CEO. Taking over the position in the last quarter of FY17, the veteran broadcaster had vowed to improve NDTV’s top line and bottom line positioning.

Besides looking at cost rationalisation, NDTV’s turnaround plan also includes transferring non-core assets owned by them. The company is also banking heavily on campaign-centric partnerships and lucrative channel sponsorships.

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[“Source-ndtv”]