pittie group: Anand Mahindra, Pittie Group’s In10 Media eyes doubling of revenue in FY23, turn profitable

The company, which ended the last financial year with a topline of Rs 260-270 crore, is eyeing revenues of Rs 500 crore in the current fiscal and turn operationally profitable.

“When we took over Epic in 2016-17, the topline of the company was around Rs 8 crore, which we grew to Rs 58 crore by end of March 21 and almost Rs 270 crore in FY 22. Next year, I am looking at double—at least Rs 500 crore—from the network and to turn profitable,” Pittie told ET.

Mahindra, who had initially invested in niche-channel Epic, founded by former Disney India head Mahesh Samat, became the sole owner of the company in 2016. Later, Pittie Group came on board as co-promoter and the responsibility to drive the business came up to the then 33-year-old Aditya Pittie, who took over as MD.

“I had experience in the distribution business, but entertainment was new to me,” Pittie confessed. “I was an outsider, so it took us some time to learn the ropes of it. But the last two years, despite the pandemic, we have grown and have ambitious plans.”

Apart from flagship channel Epic, the company also runs youth and music channel ShowBox (launched in 2019), Bhojpuri movie channel Filamchi (launched in 2020), kids channel Gubbare (2020) and a Hindi general entertainment channel, Ishara, which was launched last year.

“We are building a subscription play. While other mid-size broadcasters are looking at the advertising and free-to-air (FTA) market, currently, 80% of our revenues are coming from distribution,” Pittie added. “While ad revenue will increase with time, the new tariff order has ensured a level playing field for a mid-size network like ours to get reach.”

The company also owns two video streaming platforms, EPIC ON and DocuBay, and a production house Juggernaut Productions.

“We are looking at In10 Media Network as a content company, where the platform is incidental. With digital and new tariff order, content has been democratised. No other mid-size network has an OTT service, while we have two very distinct services. DocuBay is one of its kind across the world, offering only hand-picked documentaries,” he said.

Going forward, Pittie said he wants to create a content ecosystem with writer’s room and bench strength.

“We have our foot in the door, as far as the future of entertainment is concerned. The only way is up,” he summed up.