68% of Total Mobile & Digital Income reported by PPL in 2010

Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), a copyright society for Sound Recordings in India, which administers the Broadcasting / Telecasing and Public Performance Rights for over 139 music companies, reported a Mobile and Digital Income of Rs. 139 crore in the financial year ending March 31st 2010 (FY10), according to annual reports filed with India’s Registrar of Companies, sourced by Intellectual Property focused blog Spicy IP.
As per our analysis of the documents, Mobile and Digital segments have grown the most and the fastest since FY05, and this is indicative of the music industry’s dependence on the segment. The segment has  been the dominant source of revenue for PPL at least since FY05, when it accounted for 39.18% of total income, and in FY10, it accounted for 67.75% of total Net Income.

Note that Mobile and Digital:
- Has grown 1753.33% since FY05, from Rs. 7.43 crore in FY05 to Rs. 137.81 crore in FY10
- From FY05 to FY08, in line with the growth in the mobile VAS industry, Mobile and Digital revenuesalmost doubled each year.- In FY09 and FY10, in line with the uncertainty in the mobile space – multi SIM environment, entry of multiple new telecom operators, and regulatory uncertainty from the TRAI, Mobile and Digital revenues grew 42.71% and 39.01% respectively.
- Caller Ringback Tones (CRBT) went from accounting for 5.72% of total mobile and digital revenue in FY05 to 57.2% of total Mobile and Digital Revenue in FY06. Subsequently, PPL stopped reporting CRBT and Ringtone revenues separately.
- CRBT and Ringtones together accounted for most of Mobile and Digital Revenues in  FY05 and FY06.In just one year (FY05 vs FY06), CRBT overtook Ringtones as a the key source of mobile net income for PPL.


Complete Overview Of PPL’s Net Operating Income
Below is a table that gives you an overview of PPL’s Net Operating Income from FY05 to FY10, which we’ve prepared on the basis of annual reports published at SpiceIP:

Some notes to accounts that we’ve culled out:
FY06
- Rediff.com was responsible for PPL’s webcasting revenue in FY06, but it discontinued the deal due to a decline in revenue from Rs. 12.04 lakh in FY05 to Rs. 2.48 Lakh in FY06
- An unnamed Audio on Demand licensee did not renew the license
FY07
- Ringtone and Ringback Tone Revenues were clubbed together as Mobile Revenues
- Webcast Licensing Fees, Jukebox Licensing Fees and IVR Fees clubbed together as ‘Others’. Given that these are included as digital revenues in FY08, we’ve represented this as ‘Others (Digital)’ in the chart above.
- Radio and Telecasting Fees clubbed together as ‘Broadcasting’
FY08
- Mobile and ‘Others’ revenues were clubbed together in FY08 as ‘Mobile and Digital’.
- Telecasting Fees and Radio revenues were clubbed together as ‘Broadcasting’
FY09
- Mobile Radio business picked up, but the Ringtone business suffered on account of piracy. PPL also faced payment delays from a few content aggregators.
According to PPL’s Notes to the financial statements: “IVR license fees, Ringtone Service Fees, Ringback Tone Service Fees, Juke Box License Fees, Webcasting License Fees and Telecsting Fees have been accounted on the base of usage report submitted by parties at rates as per agreements. Estimates are made on a prudent basis wherever applicable.” and “Ringback Tone Service Royalty, IVR, Webasting License Royalty have been accounted for to the extent of the corresponding income for the year from fees, net of legal and administrative expenses”. source