HT Media Ltd (NSE: HTMEDIA) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Jan. 28, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
Aaditya Mulani — Investor Relations
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Mehul Pathak — Analyst
Yash R — Analyst
Presentation:
Aaditya Mulani — Investor Relations
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. This is Aditya Malani from HT Media Group. I would like to welcome you all to our quarter three financial year 2526 earnings webinar. As a reminder, all participants will be in listen only mode. After we are through with the presentation, there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions. I now hand over to Ms. Anna Abraham, HT Media Group’s Deputy CFO, Chief Financial Officer HMVL and Head Investor Relations. Thank you. And over to you Anna.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
Thank you, Aditya. Good afternoon everyone. Warm welcome to our earnings webinar for. The third quarter of the financial year 2526. Joining me on today’s call is Head. Of Financial controllership and taxation Mr. Parvesh Bajan and members of our International Relations team. We will start the call with a. Brief presentation on the results of HD Media and Hindustan Media Ventures following which we will take any questions that may be there. Before we start. Just a quick reminder that we do not give provide specific guidance on projections and there is a disclaimer about any forward looking statements. Coming to our Chairperson’s. Message on the results for the Porter and I quote the third quarter of the financial year saw the company make consistent operational progress characterized by stable top line performance and a steady growth in overall profitability. These results reinforce the effectiveness of our. Ongoing operational initiative to strengthen our businesses. Our core print segment continues to demonstrate. Resilience, posting growth on more than annual sequential basis. This performance was largely driven by strong growth in advertising, particularly in our English language titles alongside steady circulation revenues. The combination of these gains and the. Disciplined approach to cost has translated into meaningful growth in profitability. The radio business continues to navigate a. Challenging market environment where revenues and margins pressure performances remain stable on a sequential. Basis the year on year revenue contraction. Is primarily a reflection of the high base effect from the previous year’s event lend risk. We are proactively recalibrating our business operations. Within radio to ensure the segment is better aligned with the current industry. Our digital business delivered a strong performance. During the quarter with revenues rising and margins improving. This trajectory validates our commitment to scaling. Our digital first offerings while maintaining a clear path towards profit growth. Looking ahead, we remain focused on sustaining. The momentum seen this quarter across our business portfolio portfolio. By leveraging the enduring strength of our. Establishment mastheads, recalibrating our radio offerings and. Further scaling up our new age digital platforms, we continue to reinforce a commitment. To delivering trusted journalism and high quality content to our diverse audience. End of quote. The slide covers the agenda for the. Day we’ll start with a brief overview of the consolidated performance followed by the business unit performance on print, radio and digital. Coming to the consolidated performance, revenue was stable on an annual basis and improved sequentially. There’s been improvement in margins and the cash position continues to remain robust. So we reported a total revenue of. 532 crores which was flat versus last year and 7% growth both sequentially. EBITDA came in at 51 crores and. A margin of 10% which saw an EBITDA improvement of 9%. PAT before exceptional is at a 17 crore with a margin of 3% and net cash remains lowest at 9.5 crore. Similar number as was reported to last quarter. Coming to business unit performance and starting with print and print. English print overall saw positive momentum with. Sequential gains led by the uptick in ad revenue coupled with resilience circulation based. There’s also hot healthy margin expansion seen for this segment. Ad revenue came in at 301 crores. Which is an 8% growth versus last year. A marginal decline versus the previous year basically because of festive shift. Otherwise it’s been a healthy revenue numbers for the quarter. Circulation numbers came in at 53 crores. Which is holding steady. Putting the overall operating 395 crores which is about 2% growth. Operating EBITDA for the print business came in at 60 crores which is a 15% margin versus the 11% margin we had the previous year. Coming to print, English advertising revenue on. A yoy basis was almost flat for English print and as I mentioned this is despite the change in festive days this year versus last year. Last year all the festival was in quarter three. This year it got split between quarter two and quarter three. Despite that English came with the good advertising revenue number of about 179 crores which is also a sequential growth of 16%. Circulation revenue remains steady on a sequential basis and shown an 8% growth on a Y basis. Coming to Brun Hindi, Hindi saw a. Marginal decline of 4%. Again this is a basically basic tech, otherwise have been strong and even on a sequential basis it’s kind of flat. Circulation revenue and 38 crores is holding. Steady even for India. Coming to Radio radio is seeing a. Big drop in revenue to 34 crores which is primarily driven by the high base effect from a big event that we had in the days sequentially you can see it’s a 5% revenue movement with operating EBITDA holding at about the 5 crore loss number. Digital there is significant growth on a. Yoy basis with operating revenue coming at 67 crores and 30% growth sequentially. Also there’s a 9% growth. The segment is reporting losses at 23. Crores, but margins have significantly improved both on a sequential as a. We are now. We can now open the floor for questions. So over to you.
Aaditya Mulani — Investor Relations
Thank you, Anna. We will now begin the Q and A session. You can click on the raise hand option which will enable the moderator to unmute you for posing your query. Please introduce yourself before posing your query and and kindly restrict to a maximum of two to three questions per participant so that we may be able to address questions from all participants. Also, as is the ambit of this call, please be mindful to pose questions pertaining to the listed entity HT Media limited and those within its consolidated structure. We will wait for a few moments while the question queue assembles.
The first question is from the line of Yash R. Please introduce yourself and ask your question.
Yash R — Analyst
Yeah, hi.
Aaditya Mulani — Investor Relations
Yes, you’ll have to. Yes, yes, now you are audible. Yeah.
Yash R — Analyst
So I was just trying to make a sense of the numbers, particularly for the print segment. Hello.
Aaditya Mulani — Investor Relations
Yes, yes you are audible.
Yash R — Analyst
Okay, so my first question is with regards to the revenue. Now there seems on a consolidated basis for the print segment, there has been an uptick in other operating income because circulation and your ad revenues are relatively flat. So what has happened over there for both for English and there seems to be an uptick in HM wheel as well.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
Yeah, we have other operating revenue has. Seen some uptick combined the ad revenues and circulation. This is. I mean of course there’s quite a few components of that job scrap and all that which comes in there. Additionally there’s also four feature that we. Get from IFE benefits as well. Okay, so which has contributed more? Is it the outside work or is it the four feature which is. Which might be a one time thing. For which it has to be a little bit consistent. Now of course quarter to quarter there could be a very distinct but it’s a standard part of our standard operating arrangement with regard to that particular business. So it tends to be consistent. We’ve seen marginal upside across line size.
Yash R — Analyst
So I’m sorry, I mean it’s still not clear. So what has led to this uptick? Is it more of outside printing? Because I mean since you’re saying that the for feature is more or less consistent.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
And for feature has seen. Okay, I was reacting to your comments saying that forfeiture is one time I said some level tends to happen.
Yash R — Analyst
Okay, okay.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
Depending on sometimes it could be a little plus or minus, but it’s a consistent.
Yash R — Analyst
Okay, now coming to the HT English part. The revenue I believe has gone up by around 7 crores. But the operating profit has gone up around 17 odd crores. And I mean the savings in DVC I think are around hardly any 2 or 3 crores. So what has led to the reduction in costs which has driven up the profitability of HT English.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
English. There’s pricing growth and therefore that automatically improves margins. Newsprint continues to be lower than last year. That also helps in margins. And we’ve been very tight on all. Discretionary spends as well. Overheads is what you’re talking about. And sorry, discretionary spend. So that would be like promotion and all that. Yes.
Yash R — Analyst
Okay. And. Yeah, just one last question. The HML staff course, I believe salaries have. Salary costs have gone lower as compared to previous year by around 3 odd crores. What is the reason behind it though? It is in line with what we had in Q2. And there is you. You’re seeing Q3 versus Q3, right?
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
Just give me a minute.
Yash R — Analyst
Yeah.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
There are some incidental. There is some reverse reversal which was there with regard to variable payout. That is partially the reason. And some savings in certain other lines. Of business apart from print, which is done.
Yash R — Analyst
Apart from print. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. That’s about it from mine. Thank you.
Aaditya Mulani — Investor Relations
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mehul Patak, please introduce yourself and ask your question.
Mehul Pathak — Analyst
Can you hear me?
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
Yes.
Aaditya Mulani — Investor Relations
Yeah.
Mehul Pathak — Analyst
Good afternoon. I don’t know if Piyush is there or not. No. Okay. Okay. No, no problem. I have a couple of questions. The first is how are we using AI in all our businesses today? And what is the future impact of AI that we assess, you know, in our business? Is it going to be positive, is it going to be negative? You know, and financially, what will be the impact, you know, if you can share some perspective.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
So Mehul, I might not be the, you know, the right person to share a full perspective, but I just touch on a couple of points as we. Share. Because this is a very wide subject.
Mehul Pathak — Analyst
Your voice is jarring a bit. No, I don’t know whether it’s my problem or problem at your end.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
I believe there is no problem that other are facing. Yeah. So it could be at your end. Because we just thought of the information.
Mehul Pathak — Analyst
Okay, fine.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
I said I’ll try. Try and touch upon it briefly because it’s a very large conversation and I may not be the most competent person to address it completely. But multiple aspects. Of course there is a standard element of Efficiency, productivity that is applicable to all industries. We are on the content side. It can be a tool for our editorial setup which we are utilizing very strongly. From an impact perspective, we’ve seen there’s a lot of AI being used and that could. One view is that could also put a high importance on credibility and trustworthiness of content, which puts us in a good position if that is, that is the case.
Because in that we are a trusted. Source of news and content. So that’s one perspective that’s emerging. There’s also a certain regulatory framework that’s been proposed by the government which suggests that, you know, partners using AI will have to remunerate the original content providers if some manner which also seems to be on the positive side. So from a core newsprint, I mean new print business, we are seeing it as an enabler which should help us, you know, expand into doing better offerings. Our credibility and trust factor puts us in a good position and as regulatory environment evolve, we should see a lot. More structure and you know, structure around this as well.
Mehul Pathak — Analyst
Will it lead to massive productivity improvements and cost savings for us?
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
See, there is an element which every industry will see it, but I think the smarter ones are seeing about how do you kind of make it a revenue opportunity and not just a cost efficiency as with any automation. And there will be some element which. Comes through, as we have seen in. Past cycles of any major technological change as well. But I think the larger opportunity is to see what can be done on. The business and revenue.
Mehul Pathak — Analyst
Okay. Now as an investor I expect that, you know, at least the editorial part directly can be done by AI and you know, massively the people cost should come down anyway. But that’s not my question. It’s just a judgment call, judgment call.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
That I have, you know, that is subjective because within what differentiates you. So you have to stand for some differentiated proposition. Otherwise there is nothing. It’s like we have seen many waves of it. There was a time when aggregation of content was also positioned as a new way. And post Covid we have seen that also go through a long cycle. So those are very subjective. Gone.
Mehul Pathak — Analyst
My, my second question is, I think you have is my understanding right that entire 39.9 crores of gratuity you have booked in the P and l for.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
Quarter three, there’s an exceptional item of about 41.4 crores which has been booked. And there is a note given in the results also to that extent, which. Is an impact of the new labor code.
Mehul Pathak — Analyst
Correct. So now is it reasonable to expect that this will get adjusted in CTC next year for all the employees because at the end of it the money has to come out from the business only. So is that a reasonable expectation?
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
So there is. I think this labor code is a whole subject on its own. So difficult to kind of address it over this call. But as you may know, the labor law, what has been done as of now is a draw up of the having liability basis. The new laws, which is the what is the regulation requires us to do going forward, whatever is this thing is something which we will see how to absorb in the overall cost of the business, keeping all perspectives of employees and. Stakeholders and the company in perspective. But this is an evolving regulation and. All companies are currently grappling with it at this point.
Mehul Pathak — Analyst
Okay, but our request to the board is that it should get adjusted next year, you know, so otherwise business is no position to absorb, you know, additionally cost like these.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
This is an annual cost. This is a aggregated cost across the years for this thing. So this is nowhere indicative of the future cost increase for any business. That’s the very nominal number. These exceptional items as being reported by all the companies are of a historical one.
Mehul Pathak — Analyst
My expectation is that we.
Aaditya Mulani — Investor Relations
May we request you to please fall back in queue for any follow up questions.
Mehul Pathak — Analyst
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Aaditya Mulani — Investor Relations
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. A reminder to all participants that you may use the raise hand option given on your screen if you wish to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Kirit Shah. Please unmute yourself, introduce yourself and ask your question. Yes. Mr. Kirid, you will have to unmute yourself. Yes. Okay, we’ll move on to the next caller. The next question is from the line of Yash R. Please unmute yourself.
Yash R — Analyst
Yeah, so my question is with regards to are we seeing an uptick in the pricing compared to previous year and how has it fared sequentially?
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
You are talking about ad pricing.
Yash R — Analyst
Ad pricing. Yes. Yes, sorry, I was in specific.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
Yeah, both yoy and sequentially we have.
Yash R — Analyst
Seen in the pricing. Okay. And what about the copies? I mean I see that the revenue circulation revenue has gone down versus previous year for Hindi and I believe it’s. That’s the same or there’s. There has been a slight uptick in the English part. So what is the drivers behind it?
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
It’s very marginal. You know that things that you have. Seen in the last year similar time there was competitive pressure and there was. Therefore a lot in certain markets and therefore publications there were a little more copy circulation. But it did have an impact on pricing this time it’s now at a more reasonable level. So if you see sequentially it’s holding flat as well and there is marginal shifts. These keep happening as market to market. There are some attempts to increase copies etc but overall no issues. The pricing is holding, copies are holding it circulation revenue has been steady. Okay, all right. And what about the newsprint rates? Do we have any update on that? Because there has been news in the market saying that prices are going to increase in the coming quarters especially given the current geopolitical scenario. Yeah, so we are. The market is indicating that there could be a potential shift in the newsprint. You know there’s a gradual increase anywhere this commodity does the it moves in cycles and we’ve been at the bottom. Of the cycle for some time. Currently we are still below last year. On for the quarter as well as lot of ID’d basically this and I. Think pretty much next quarter also. You know we are not expecting any major shift. And we have reasonable cover till the first quarter of next year. Then after we might see some upward move.
Yash R — Analyst
So I mean do we have any plans to mitigate or shift this impact be it increase in cover prices or probably you know mitigated by increasing our ad pricing.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
So yes, yeah, as you can, you know like I said many cycles. So everything that happens on that particular. Cycle we will attempt to do consistently. Including optimizing buyings, optimizing mix of newsprint, controlling consumption etc etc pricing is a. Is there is will be a tougher. Part when priced in the Hindi markets for sure and at pricing doesn’t authority or never moved in that. But everything else that’s possible will be. Done because this industry does series cycles in a certain periodic. Okay, all right, thank you, thank you.
Aaditya Mulani — Investor Relations
We will try Mr. Kit again. He has raised his hand. And then move on to the next participant. Mr. Kit, please unmute yourself and ask your question. We are trying it one more time. Mr. Kit, you can unmute yourself and ask your question. Okay, moving on to the next participant. The next question is from the line of short Shubham Jajodia. Please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Unidentified Participant
Hello? Yes, Mr. Am I audible? Yes, you are.
Unidentified Participant
Good afternoon. So last year in December there was this deal that Meta did with some news publishers in the US and are we expecting such kind of deals happen here as well? Are you guys have been approached by Meta, any kind of AI companies or are you guys seeing it as a viable and material potential revenue source for future and if that kind of opportunity do arise, do you guys see to negotiate, you know as we’re seeing kind of a change in our the way traditional platform is evolving in this AI landscape.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
So I did kind of mention in. My response to an earlier participant’s question. That government itself has today floated a. Proposal which requires platforms to compensate the original content creator for data used by them and which includes the AI participants.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, but are you guys actively pursuing such kind of deals yourself? See, we are not seeing much uptick in our revenue growth where the stock performance has been very decimal. I mean post Covid if you would. See there’s not much growth that is coming. So AI looks like a very good way to boost our revenues. So what are you guys actively doing to boost some bottom line there?
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
We have conversations but it is not. Not at the be to share anything on this call.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Aaditya Mulani — Investor Relations
Thank you. Thank you all. With this we come to the end of the Q and A session. If you have any further queries, please reach out to the investor relations team. Our contact details are given in the investor presentation and are also mentioned on our websites. I now hand over to Anna for closing remarks.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
Thank you everyone.
Anna Abraham — Head, Investor Relations
Thank you for participating in our webinar. It’s been nine months from an overall HD Media Group perspective. We hope to continue this momentum and come back to you with a good set of numbers for the next quarter. Well, thank you once again. Have a good evening.