Music Broadcast Limited (NSE: RADIOCITY) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Feb. 04, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Marrow — Analyst
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
Rajakumar Vaidyanathan — Analyst
Meghna — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and Gentlemen, good day and welcome to Music Broadcast Limited Q3FY26 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Start then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. Please note this conference call may contain forward looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as on date of this call.
These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. I now hand the conference over to the CEO of the company, Mr. Abraham Thomas. Thank you and over to you sir.
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
Thank you. Good afternoon everyone and a very warm welcome to the Quarter 3 Earnings Conference Call of Music Broadcast Limited. Joining me on the call today is Mr. Rajiv Shah, Chief Financial Officer. During the quarter, the company continued to execute on the strategic realignment initiatives announced earlier aimed at strengthening profitability, optimizing costs and improving operational efficiency. These actions are now beginning to reflect in our financial performance, particularly on margins and bottom line improvements. As highlighted in the previous quarter, we undertook several decisive measures across manpower, programming and digital initiatives. The benefits of these actions were more visible during quarter three with prudent cost controls and better operating leverage.
Our focus remains firmly on cost discipline, efficient content delivery and improving monetization across platforms. Most importantly, these initiatives do not compromise operational efficiency or market presence while positioning the company for sustainable profitability. The financial performance for Q3FY26 the financial highlights are for Q3FY26, the company reported revenue of 46.4 crores reflecting a 23% quarter on quarter growth driven by improved advertiser activity and seasonal momentum. Total income stood at 54.8 crores. On the profitability front, operating EBITDA for the quarter was 15.9 crores compared to 1.3 crores in quarter two FY26, demonstrating a significant improvement in operating performance.
EBITDA margins expanded to 34% reflecting the impact of cost rationalization and operating leverage. Operating EBITDA stood at 9.1 crores with EBIT margins improving to 20% after accounting for finance costs and taxes. The adjusted profit after tax after interest round in CRPs stood at 6 crores compared to a loss in the previous quarter. Reported PAT for The quarter was 4.1 crores, making a strong sequential turnaround. The nine month performance of the company ended December 2025. Total income stood at 155.8 crores. EBITDA was 25.3 crores. While year on year numbers remain impacted due to softer advertising environment, the sequential trend reflects a clear improvement in business momentum and profitability.
The advertising environment during the quarter showed gradual recovery, supported by festive demand and improved sentiment across categories. Radio City continues to maintain its strong advertiser relationships and remained a preferred platform for clients seeking effective regional and mass reach. Our continued focus on alternate revenue streams, including branded content properties, sponsorships and integrated solutions, also supports revenue diversification and resilience. Looking ahead, we remain cautiously optimistic. The structural cost actions undertaken combined with improved advertising demand position us well to sustain margin improvement, drive profitable growth and strengthen cash flows. We will continue to focus on disciplined execution and capital efficiency while navigating near term uncertainties.
With that, I would now request the moderator to open the floor for questions and answers.
operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We’ll take our first question from the line of K. Marrow, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Marrow — Analyst
Hello, sir. Am I audible?
operator
Yeah. Yes, you are.
Marrow — Analyst
Okay. My first question is regarding our code issue with pornographic. And I just want to know about the maximum amount involved. That means the amount in dispute. That means what. What could be the maximum liability that may occur?
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
See, the liability is not quantifiable and as per the context of our stand, we believe there should not be any outflow. As for our legal opinion and the. Our case looks to be strong and we are waiting now for the hearing at the Supreme Court level. We don’t see any outflow going.
Marrow — Analyst
Okay, so any. Any approx. Figure.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
We cannot quantify this since it’s subjugation and we are. We are a strong case and we don’t see any financial outflow.
Marrow — Analyst
Okay, okay. Okay. Okay.
Marrow — Analyst
And this court case is with reference to the year 2010 and 2020, am I correct, sir?
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
Yes.
Marrow — Analyst
Okay, so. So is there any possibility of the same type of a dispute that may occur thereafter? I mean after.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
No, after that the copyright board order is being followed and which nobody is disputing.
Marrow — Analyst
Got it? Got it, sir. So can I go ahead with another question?
operator
Sir, please go ahead.
Marrow — Analyst
I want to know the gross debt as on 31 December gross debt.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
There is no debt on the company’s books.
Marrow — Analyst
No, I am talking about not net debt. I am talking about gross debt.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
There is no debt on the company’s book. The only debt which has already redeemed.
Marrow — Analyst
Okay, got it.
Marrow — Analyst
So now what is the cash position net case as on the reverse of.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
December it is 373 crores.
Marrow — Analyst
Okay. It’s a net case available as on the 31st of December.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
As on the 31st of December.
Marrow — Analyst
Thank you very much, sir. It’s okay. Thanks.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question please press star n1 on your phone. The next question is from the line of Meghana, an individual investor. Please go ahead. Meghna, please go ahead with your question. Since there is no response we’ll move on to the next question. From the line of Chandramouli Jagannathan, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
Hello, sir. Now you said that you have a net cash of about 373 crores. But you would have redeemed in January. I know the NCR PS about 107. So after that it’s still. I mean minus think that it will be roughly about 260 crores. You mean to say. Right?
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
Correct. He asked it as for the 31st of December. So that is the figure as on the 31st of December. As on today it is 261.
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
Okay. Okay. And normally where you just put. The interest cost for the NCRP is about 2 and a half 3 crores on a quarterly basis. Roughly about 1112 crores on a yearly basis. Which will go from the next current quarter. Right.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
For one month it will be there for January. And after that there will be no interest on NCBRs.
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
So that means next year the interest cost will be negligible overall as a company. Am I right?
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
Yeah. It will be negligible. Correct.
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So that is the case. You know that the company’s market cap right now is only about 200 plus crores. Whereas the company net cash is 260 crores. In spite of the businesses. Not. I know. But can you guys normally consider about a buyback? You know, the buyback tax is also kind of attractive after the new budget.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
No. This I will not be able to comment right now. The proposal has just come in.
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So what. What would be the. You know, because in the last quarter you guys are paying about and a quarter on quarter. The incremental benefit of the cost cutting measures and things like that will be around 6, 7 crores. Will it Continue. I mean next year will be a good year for music broadcast. That is the case in upon profitability, print should be. So what is the growth that you expect next year, sir?
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
So it will depend on how the industry behaves. So right now we are not in a position to give any guidance for the next year.
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
Okay. If not on a top line, at least on a bottom line there will be a decent growth because of all these measures.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
Yes, there should be. See, if we say 6 crores, we are saving around 24 crore on the expenses front and around 7 crore on the NCPRS interest. So around 30 crore saving in the expense should be there.
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
Okay. So that is straight away get into a PBT if I’m right.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
Yes.
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Please, please. My humble request from our side to consider buyback where they know, whatever, whatever the thing where you can return to a shareholder. So apart from that ncrps, there is nothing pending rate, it’s all over, you know, because it got redeemed in January.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
Yes, everything is done.
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir. That’s all for me. Thank you.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the line of Rajakumar Vaidyanathan from RK Invest. Please go ahead.
Rajakumar Vaidyanathan — Analyst
Rafin, can you hear me?
operator
Yes, please go ahead.
Rajakumar Vaidyanathan — Analyst
Yeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity, sir. First of all, congrats for the better set of numbers this quarter. So I can see the cost savings that you in the last call. It’s kind of, you know, fructified this quarter. Sir, the question is still there is a revenue degrowth compared to year on year. So when do you think that this will get also addressed?
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
So you’re right. The advertising market outside is subdued. And there is. There is also an impact of substantial election political spending last year, same quarter due to the assembly elections. So that also has kind of added to the degrowth if you were to compare it with the previous year. So things are slowly getting better. We are expecting things to remain stable going forward.
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
So is it too far to assume.
Rajakumar Vaidyanathan — Analyst
That you will not lose money on the bottom line go forward given that all the cost initiatives have been baked in?
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
Yes, that is the attempt. I think these cost cuts are sustainable. We are able to manage the business efficiently without impacting any listener experience or advertiser experience. So the cost cuts are definitely sustainable. So it’s about growing the top line, looking at alternate revenue streams going forward.
Rajakumar Vaidyanathan — Analyst
Okay. And the cost cuts are fully baked in this quarter or some more will be coming up in the upcoming quarters.
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
No, most of the cost cuts are over. Actually cost cuts are complete and therefore this is now going to be the stable figure going forward.
Rajakumar Vaidyanathan — Analyst
And lastly sir, my question is, do you think that this industry is on a downward path? Because I can see the revenue is coming down though you people are working hard to maintain the bottom line. The way the market is not giving, I mean, you can see the stock is trading way below the book value. Is it due to the fact that the industry is being pursued as on a downward slope?
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
So there is definitely a subdued advertiser sentiment. Having said that, the business itself is now changing towards the tier 2, tier 3 markets where there is increased spending from clients and we have a robust 39 station network across all these markets. So we believe we’ll get the advantage of being present in these smaller markets which is now beginning to show growth.
Rajakumar Vaidyanathan — Analyst
Okay, okay. And lastly, did you hear anything from the government on the on the ad rates? Because last call you mentioned that you are expecting some hike in the rates.
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
Not yet. We are in continuous talks with them and we are hopeful of some announcement from that soon.
Rajakumar Vaidyanathan — Analyst
Okay. It will come in this quarter.
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
There’s no commitment because they are still considering it. So we have no indication when it will come in.
Rajakumar Vaidyanathan — Analyst
And one more question on the ea. Do you use EA in your deliverables? Is it one of the reason that you are able to cut costs?
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
Actually we have an AI radio jock which is which we have now introduced and RJCR and we are trying to use that to do advertiser integrated solutions and spots and all of that. So that’s one part where AI is clearly coming in from a listener and advertiser point of view. Otherwise we do use some of the tools available for smarter copywriting and smarter content creation wherever we can integrate it with our programming.
Rajakumar Vaidyanathan — Analyst
Okay, thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. Before we take the next question, would like to remind participants to ask a question. Please press RN1 on your phone. The next question is from the line of Meghna, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Meghna — Analyst
Hello, good afternoon. Am I audible?
operator
Yes, please go ahead.
Meghna — Analyst
So I wanted to ask what is the FCT and NF for the quarter?
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
FCT NFCD?
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
Just about. I think NFCT is approximately about 20% of our revenue.
Meghna — Analyst
Okay, and what has been the inventory utilization like?
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
Inventory utilization is about 85 to 90% on a 15 minute per hour basis.
Meghna — Analyst
Okay, this is for the quarter?
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, for the quarter. It will be about close to 90% inventory utilization assuming 15 minutes per per hour is the gap.
Meghna — Analyst
Okay, and what about the volume growth for Q3.
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
So the volume has actually shown degrowth according to HHEC of -4%. That’s what HHEC data shows, that radio volumes have degrown by minus 4% and YTD is about minus 1%.
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
Okay.
Meghna — Analyst
YTD is fine. And your rates have increased or decreased this quarter. And how is it like if we. Compare to pre Covid levels, the rates are stable.
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
They are kind of at the same level. So they are lower than pre Covid levels. And the.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
So it would be around 75% of the pre Covid numbers.
Meghna — Analyst
Okay. And we saw some savings in employee cost and other expenses. So like on the employee cost front, what have we done?
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
We have actually rationalized the whole manpower thing. Earlier there were different teams that we have now consolidated and merged into one team. So they’re more. So that resulted in some amount of savings. Even in terms of programming, we have kind of rationalized the content and a lot of regional content is going from one station to the other. So the format of the on air has actually been rationalized and which has led to some amount of content savings and manpower savings.
Meghna — Analyst
Okay, so you have basically transitioned to leaner teams, is it?
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
Yes, and more vertical teams rather than multiple horizontal teams.
Meghna — Analyst
Okay. Okay, got. Thank you. That answers my question.
operator
Thank you. We have a follow up question from the line of Raju Kumar Vaidyanathan from RK Invest. Please go ahead. Sorry, his line is disconnected. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one on your phone. Participants who wish to ask a question may please press star and one on their phone. Now, As there are no further questions, we have one question from the line of money and individual investor. Please go ahead. Hi sir, Am I audible?
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
Yes, you are.
Meghna — Analyst
Yeah. I just wanted to understand in terms of your digital ventures that you’re doing, how do you guys make money and what are the source of revenue in those mediums? If you can explain about that. Thank you.
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
So broadly, this whole business has transformed into a solutions business. And we are trying to create solutions for clients for their marketing challenges. So the solutions that we now create are not restricted to radio alone. They also include digital solution and it also includes maybe an on ground extension of that. So digital solutions is beginning to play an important part in driving outcomes. And this is what is reflecting in what all advertisers are beginning to now start to adopt. So that’s also there is digital solutions, which is an idea which we create and which is executed on the digital assets.
And then there is also revenue which comes from Our own digital assets and the revenue that comes from, from social media and YouTube and all that. So these are the two digital revenues that we get. But in the solutions play, there are lots of areas, whether it’s influencer marketing, whether it is integration of an idea into the content, and so on and so forth. So digital solutions we see playing an important part to drive digital revenues.
Chandramouli Jagannathan — Analyst
Is there a way that in the.
Unidentified Participant
Digital solutions offerings that you do, you get to capitalize on the strength that you have in your radio network or. That is a completely different field.
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
In fact, it is driven by our strength in radio. So we use the combination of Radio plus Digital to drive more effective solutions. So even if it’s like a creation of a podcast for a client, a series of podcasts that the client wishes to create, we create it for them, but we also drive audiences to the podcast to radio. So the radio plus Digital works well for us, given our strengths in radio.
Unidentified Participant
But for people who offer digital solutions, they can continue to use your radio medium as an advertising to drive revenue.
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. We try and integrate it smartly for them so it’s seamless for the consumer.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, fair enough. Thank you so much.
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
You’re welcome.
operator
Thank you. Next question is from Raju Kumar Vaidyanathan from RK Invest. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, thank you for the follow up. Sir, the question is, you know, given your lower market cap, would it not make sense for you to fold it under Jagran? You know, you can at least consolidate all your costs. And.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
No comments on this right now.
Unidentified Participant
Is it something which you play exploring or.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
No, we cannot. No, this is something we will not be able to comment right now.
Unidentified Participant
No, I mean, my question is, would it make sense from a prudent standpoint? That’s what I’m asking. Are they. Are there any legal restrictions not to. I mean, to operate as two separate entity.
Rajiv Shah — General Manager, Corporate Strategy
Right now? No comments on this right now.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thank you.
operator
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I now hand the conference back to Mr. Abraham Thomas for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
In closing, to conclude quarter three, FY26 marks an important inflection point for the company with a clear turnaround in profitability and operating performance. We believe the steps taken over the last few quarters have strengthened the foundation of the business and improved our ability to deliver consistent value to the stakeholders. Thank you all for joining us today.
operator
Thank you. On behalf of Music Broadcast Limited. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your line.
Unidentified Participant
Thank.
Abraham Thomas — Chief Executive Officer
You.