GTPL Hathway Limited (NSE:GTPL)
India flag India · Delayed Price · Currency is INR
69.47
+0.74 (1.08%)
May 8, 2026, 3:29 PM IST
← View all transcripts

Q2 24/25

Oct 10, 2024

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q2 FY twenty-five results conference call of GTPL Hathway, hosted by Emkay Global Financial Services. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in 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 star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Pulkit Chawla from Emkay Global Financial Services. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Pulkit Chawla
Equity Research Analyst, Emkay Global Financial Services

Thank you, Sejal. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Q2 FY twenty-five earnings call for GTPL Hathway. From the management, we have with us today Mr. Anirudhs inh Jadeja, Promoter and Managing Director, Mr. Piyush Pankaj, Business Head, B2B and Chief Strategy Officer, and Mr. Saurav Banerjee, Chief Financial Officer. Without any further delay, I shall now hand over the call to the management for the opening remarks. Over to you, sir.

Anirudhsinh Jadeja
Managing Director, GTPL Hathway Limited

Thank you, Pulkit. Good evening, everyone. A warm welcome to everybody to the earnings call of GTPL Hathway to discuss financial performance of quarter two FY twenty twenty-five. We continue to have the market leadership in terms of our customer base across both segments. Both the business segments, cable and broadband, present a vast opportunity for growth as we work on achieving the same by providing quality service enabled through using best-in-class technologies. In line with our vision of enhancing customer experience, we launched a consumer-centric GTPL Buzz application, which provides suite of services to our customers, including TV Everywhere, Blacknut. We integrated the GTPL chatbot, GIVA. I will now hand over the call to Mr. Piyush Pankaj, who will take you through the KPI for cable TV and broadband segments.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Thank you, Mr. Jadeja. Good evening, everyone. Let me start off by mentioning key KPIs for both our business segments. First, the cable TV segment. Our digital cable TV subscriber base, as on thirtieth September 2024, stood at 9.5 million. Among the total subscriber base, paying subscribers stood at 8.8 million. On a YOY basis, the increase in both active and paying subscriber is 100K, respectively. In the broadband business, active subscriber base at the end of the quarter stood at 1.04 million, adding 50K new subscribers, an increase of 5% on a YOY basis. Home pass stood at 5.95 million as on thirtieth September 2024, of which 75% are available for FTTH. Home pass grew by 7% on a YOY basis.

The broadband ARPU for quarter two FY 2025 remained stable at INR 450. Average data consumption per month stood at 350 GB, a 13% increase YOY. This quarter was muted for the whole industry due to end of mega events like IPL and T20 World Cup in last quarter. No major events happened in this quarter, and extended rain and flood marred this quarter, due to which the customer addition and retention becomes difficult and the whole industry face this problem. In the cable business, our efforts are focused on growing our subscriber base through a mix of organic growth and industry consolidation via acquisitions of existing operators and MSOs. Broadband business is witnessing healthy subscriber growth, propelled by both direct customer additions and with strategic use of our extensive partner network to expand. This dual strategy in both business segments will strengthen our market position.

I will now hand over the call to Mr. Saurav Banerjee, CFO, who will take you through the financial performance of the company.

Saurav Banerjee
CFO, GTPL Hathway Limited

Thank you, Mr. Piyush, and good evening to all the participants. On a consolidated basis for the quarter, total revenue grew by 9% YOY to INR 8,620 million. Consolidated reported EBITDA stood at INR 1,138 million, and net profit stood at INR 129 million. On to the standalone results: Total revenue grew by 6% YOY to INR 5,452 million. Standalone reported EBITDA stood at INR 651 million, and net profit for Q2 2025 stood at INR 141 million. Balance sheet of the company remains healthy, with a net debt to equity of 0.1 time as on thirtieth September. I would now request the moderator to open the floor for the Q&A session.

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 touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles... The first question is from the line of Sahil Vora from MF Associates. Please go ahead.

Sahil Vora
Equity Analyst, M&S Associates

Hi, good afternoon. Am I audible?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yes, hi. Please go ahead.

Sahil Vora
Equity Analyst, M&S Associates

Yes, sir. Can you say how much of the subscriber addition in broadband have been through the B2B route in this quarter?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah. So in this quarter, if you see the total subscriber addition is of ten K, of which two K is B2C and eight K is around B2B subscribers. In total, one point zero four million, there are hundred K subscriber is B2B right now.

Sahil Vora
Equity Analyst, M&S Associates

Okay, sir, and which states are we actively pursuing B2B for, in terms of broadband growth?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Three states, Delhi, UP and Bihar right now.

Sahil Vora
Equity Analyst, M&S Associates

Okay, got it. Also, a follow-up question would be, can you walk me through how the economics work for your B2B partnership in broadband, you know, in terms of revenue sharing and margin? Are the margins on similar margins with your organic broadband business, or should we expect segment margin to be lower going ahead?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

There are two models. One model where the main investment is coming from the operator, and we are doing the investment at the city level only. That is where we are sharing 60/40. 60 is in the favor of operator, 40 is in the favor of us. And if I talk about the margin, basis of the revenue which we are getting, the margin is at the same level of B2C. Yeah, if you go for the gross revenue, it is like, somewhere, down by... The margin is down by around 30%-35% from the B2C.

Sahil Vora
Equity Analyst, M&S Associates

Okay, got it. Also, my last question would be, our cable TV business has seen a decrease in subscribers compared to the previous quarter. Can you shed some light on what happened to subscriber base during the quarter?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah. So this quarter, as I said in my opening sentence, that there are no major event was there in this quarter, plus there was extended rain and flood all over the country. I will say that if it stopped in one place, it started in another place. Now we are in twenty-three states, and we faced this problem throughout. So the churn is a bit higher than what we have expected. So our addition is on the line, but our churn is a bit higher than what we expected. And that giving us that we have lost some of the subscriber, and we declined in this quarter, quarter to quarter, if you see. And but we are hopeful that we will recover it very fast.

Already, we are seeing the effect of India, Bangladesh and Women T20, and already we are up by around 70 K in this 10 days of October only. We are looking forward that we will recover the subscriber base and related all the revenues and cost of that.

Sahil Vora
Equity Analyst, M&S Associates

Okay, that's all from my side. I'll join the queue if I have further questions. All the best, sir.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditya Jain from SM Capital. Please go ahead.

Aditya Jain
Equity Analyst, SM Capital

Hi, hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah, Aditya. Please, go ahead.

Aditya Jain
Equity Analyst, SM Capital

Yeah. So, a few things that I wanted to understand. So one is like any specific reason for, like, rise in the short-term borrowing? Like, I mean, although our cash levels remain healthy, but I think, like, you may appreciate my concern that, like, rising short-term debt levels have caused an, you know, kind of an increase in interest expense, which is in turn, like, hurting the bottom line.

Saurav Banerjee
CFO, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah, Saurav here. Yes, absolutely right. Your observation is correct. Let me just very briefly explain to you. The short-term borrowings that you are seeing an increase is actually the overdraft facilities that we have with the various banks. And in this quarter, we have utilized those facilities to a higher extent compared to the earlier quarter, primarily to pay some of our vendors or to pay some advances to the vendors. With respect to the HITS project, for which we are, the company is gearing up, of course, there is still enough time to, you know, to reach final stage of that. But the gearing up, the preliminary activities, the preparatory activities needs to be done right now. And to that extent, we have utilized some of these limits.

As we all know, overdraft facilities are always moving in nature, so this increase will again, you know, taper down gradually over the next couple of quarters, and we'll come back to nearly the original levels which we had earlier.

Aditya Jain
Equity Analyst, SM Capital

Okay. So, can I assume that, like, these, like, our borrowings and our overdraft be paid down during the end of the year? Or, do we see it in the next quarter?

Saurav Banerjee
CFO, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yes, correct. That's right. That's, that's exactly what is most likely to happen. It will taper down as we again, you know, we start generating enough cash and we reduce the overdraft borrowing. So overdraft is usually meant for these purposes only, and that is how it has been used currently in this quarter.

Aditya Jain
Equity Analyst, SM Capital

... Okay, okay, and, Home Pass opportunity like continues to rise, but when I look at active broadband, broadband subscribers as a percentage of Home Pass, that has either been constant or has been on a slight decline. So is there any reason for this, staying constant there?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

You're talking about the broadband subscriber?

Aditya Jain
Equity Analyst, SM Capital

Active broadband subscriber, yes.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

We don't give active broadband. We give active cable subscribers, which is eight point.

Aditya Jain
Equity Analyst, SM Capital

Okay.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah, yeah. So, cable subscriber, if you see it, is, yeah, you're right, that it is just a hundred K increase over the YOY basis, and this quarter, we have gone down by around hundred K on that, and that is because this quarter was a bit uncertain for us on that basis. We have gone down from eight point nine to eight point eight zero. Earlier, from eight point seven, we have gone up to eight point nine, which is more of a two hundred K added, but yeah, again, we are very confident that the subscribers will come back and we will again going to be on the growth path.

Aditya Jain
Equity Analyst, SM Capital

What are the steps that you already took to, you know, convert a higher percentage of home pass to convert subscriber base?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah. So eight point seven to eight point nine, it is varying right now. If you see that, last two quarters, we have grown, and this quarter we have gone down, but, it will go up, and, again, we'll be on the growth path on that.

Aditya Jain
Equity Analyst, SM Capital

Okay. And, just a last question. So is my fundamental understanding correct, that Home Pass is the total people available to convert to subscribers?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Home Pass? Yes.

Aditya Jain
Equity Analyst, SM Capital

Yes.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Home Pass is the infrastructure ready. You have the infrastructure ready.

Aditya Jain
Equity Analyst, SM Capital

Mm-hmm.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

You can connect any subscribers within 24-48 hours if you get the-

Aditya Jain
Equity Analyst, SM Capital

Okay.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Subscriber on board. Yeah.

Aditya Jain
Equity Analyst, SM Capital

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir, for the opportunity, all the very best.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Disha Shah from PVC Capital. Please go ahead.

Disha Sheth
Equity Research Analyst, Anvil Share and Stock Broking

Hi, thank you for the opportunity. So my question is like, in the Q1 FY 2025 call, you had guided us that you may take some price hike in some markets. However, when I look the ISP growth, it's largely in line with your broadband subscriber growth. So, how would we look at the ISP revenue growth in future? And will it be in line with your subscriber growth, or will you increase prices so that the broadband achieve the high growth?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah. You're talking about the broadband growth, the subscriber base? Yes, subscriber base, if you see, we have added around fifty K YOY. Yearly, we are keeping at that it should be at a hundred K, but it is a bit muted, and fifty K we have added. But future is yes, as we are expanding, and we are expanding fast in B2B now also. B2B is little geared up, and we are adding good subscribers over there, so we are hopeful that between eighty to hundred K, they will achieve. Plus, as the data cost is increasing in the wireless now, and the prices have hiked, and that is also just giving us some traction in the market.

But yes, the full traction for that benefit is still to come for the wired broadband.

Disha Sheth
Equity Research Analyst, Anvil Share and Stock Broking

Okay. So my second question is, like the data centers is a rising trend in the country with a higher need for localized data storage. So, like, these centers require high-speed data, which is usually delivered through fiber optic cable. So in this regard, are you in contact with any entity engaged in data center business for their connectivity needs?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

No, this is data center which we talked about. We are getting the GP from the GPX in Mumbai right now. From there, what we are getting all the data and all type of technology we are using, we are engaging technology which is taking the benefit of all type of technology to reduce our broadband cost. Yes, we are looking forward that international data is going to get opened at Mundra, which is the plan. If that will happen, that will going to save us cost in the bandwidth side. We are looking forward to that, but no, we are not in touch with any data center. We are using the very reliable data center from Mumbai, and we are doing that way.

Disha Sheth
Equity Research Analyst, Anvil Share and Stock Broking

Okay. Okay, fair enough. Sir, a follow-up to this, like, do we also engage with enterprise clients, business corporate, to provide them with our broadband services? These customers may prove to be a large consumer of high-speed data. Like, are there any plans to engage with such client base in future, and if we do so, then at what level?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yes, you're right. We have the enterprise team in place. We have two teams in place. One is for the government projects, and one for the enterprise team, which is general enterprise. And both teams we have formed, and they are giving the results to us. We are giving the all type of solutions to our clients. Already we have big clients like Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and Indian Oil.

Saurav Banerjee
CFO, GTPL Hathway Limited

Bank of America.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Bank of America and all. So those clients are there already, and we are taking that business to the next level right now. Same with the government projects. As you know that we were involved in different government projects throughout in Gujarat and outside Gujarat, so we are taking them with those government projects also, we will be taking the opportunity.

Disha Sheth
Equity Research Analyst, Anvil Share and Stock Broking

Okay. Okay, fair enough. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. That's all from my side.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Masum Agarwal, who is an individual investor. Please go ahead. Mr. Masum, I would request you to unmute your line and speak, please.

Mausam Agarwal
Independent Investor, Individual Investor

Hello?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Hi. Hi, Masum.

Mausam Agarwal
Independent Investor, Individual Investor

Hi. Good evening, everyone. So, my question is, regarding the TV business, recently saw a degrowth on EBIT level. So despite, we have seen a healthy 12% growth on the revenue front, so when we calculate the segment margin based on segment results of your report, of your reported results, so the margin comes around 1.4% versus 4.2% year on year. So basically, what led to this fall in the segment contribution of, cable TV? And, like, what are your expectations for the segment margin, like, at the end of this financial year?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah. So segment margin is more on the PBT, on the PBT level. So I'll just say that, if you see our subscription revenue on that, if I talk about, QoQ, the subscription revenue is down by around INR 6 crore QoQ, as we have witnessed higher industry churn during the quarter. That is because of the major television events like IPL and T20 have ended, and there is continuous rains and flood and all, and which affected our efforts towards customer retention and new customer additions. During the quarter, we have also curtailed our operating and administrative costs by around INR 6.5 crore, in line with the core cable TV revenue. Revenue is down by 6, and 6.5 crore is the main operating and cost, administrative cost is down.

But the main reason for decrease in EBITDA QOQ basis is INR 6.5 crores, which is, which we got lesser in the advertisement income during last quarter. So advertisement income during last quarter is on account of major events on IPL and World Cup. We have got higher revenues on that. This quarter, around INR 6.5 crore is down. If you see our other operating income, it is a part of other operating income, it is down by 26%. That is mainly down by the INR 6.5 crore of revenues, down in the advertisement, and that has affected our EBITDA and EBITDA margin. We are hopeful that we will start going to recover the subscription revenue also, and we're going to recover in the advertisement revenue also, as the major events will come.

You will start seeing that again, we are at the same level of segment margins as we witnessed earlier.

Mausam Agarwal
Independent Investor, Individual Investor

And also a follow-up question. I have observed the same phenomena for broadband business, too. So like, when we calculated our segment margin based on reported segment results, have fallen from 8.9% in Q2 FY 2024 to 3.4% in Q2 FY 2025. So, basically, what has led to fall in broadband margin, despite us recording both subscriber growth and revenue growth here?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah. So broadband side, as I just mentioned just before the analyst call, that there is an increase, the rate of increase of subscriber addition is more in the B2B segment, which is a bit of lower margin than the B2C segment. So the B2C segment has a bit slowed down as we are doing the B2C mainly in Gujarat. And the growth is there, but the rate of growth is more in the B2B business, which is more of we are doing in all twenty-two states. Trying to do in all twenty-two states. We have concentration is right now in Delhi, UP and Bihar, and we are going to expand that in other states also, which we are doing it. Because of that, you will see there is a big dip in the segment side.

Plus, from, if you see, as we are doing it with the YOY basis, in the last call, we have said that, we have changed the depreciation policy to more conservative side, in the broadband business, going as per the marketing and, seeing the technical evaluation, technical obligations of the company. So the depreciation policies has been changed and make more conservative on that side, which we explained in, I think, FY 2024 result side. And that is also a bit of reason that PBT has a bit down from the last year. But yes, once, you will start seeing the QOQ basis, then you will see that, okay, it is at the same line.

Mausam Agarwal
Independent Investor, Individual Investor

... Also, can you specify the amount of CapEx done during the quarter, and as well for both, broadband and cable TV?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah. So total CapEx for last six months we did around INR 185 crore, and the CATV CapEx is INR 110 crores, and broadband CapEx is INR 75 crores. So in quarter one, we did around INR 90 crores, 50 was CATV, and broadband was 40. Now it has increased to INR 185. CATV is 110, and broadband is 75.

Mausam Agarwal
Independent Investor, Individual Investor

Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you for answering all the questions. Thank you for this opportunity.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Thanks so much.

Operator

Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Sahil from Sirius Advisors Private Limited. Please go ahead.

Sahil Bambade
Equity Research Associate, Sirius Advisors Private Limited

Hello?

Operator

Yes.

Sahil Bambade
Equity Research Associate, Sirius Advisors Private Limited

Good afternoon, sir.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Hi, Sahil.

Sahil Bambade
Equity Research Associate, Sirius Advisors Private Limited

Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for this opportunity. Most of the questions have already been covered. I have one more question. That is, during BharatNet phase two, GTPL secured a contract worth up to INR 1,242 crores, and that led to generation of significant revenue and profit. But, so for BharatNet phase three, could you please confirm whether a bid was submitted or not? And if not, could you please provide the reason behind that, decision of not submitting a bid?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah, you're right, that we are bidding as a consortium. We are bidding for the project. I can't disclose which I've bidded and which I've not bidded yet. Right now, the technical has already been done, technical event, which we have participated, and we are hopeful that some of the projects should come to our bidding. But we have to see that how the financial bid, when the financial bid is get over and how that goes.

Sahil Bambade
Equity Research Associate, Sirius Advisors Private Limited

So, hopefully you get this project, then how much margin expansion you are seeing from that project?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Sahil, right now, we can't describe still that, because it depends on which market you get, whether you are getting which state you are getting the projects, because every state has their own needs. And based on that, we can finalize that market and all. So I think that we should wait once whether we get the project or not. If we get the project, we'll discuss more. So that's it.

Sahil Bambade
Equity Research Associate, Sirius Advisors Private Limited

Okay, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you for this opportunity.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ketan Athawale from RoboCapital. Please go ahead.

Ketan Athawale
Equity Research Analyst, RoboCapital

Hello, sir, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I wanted to know revenue and margin guidance for FY twenty-five and FY twenty-six.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Can you repeat that, Ketan? Your voice was a bit cracking. Sorry.

Ketan Athawale
Equity Research Analyst, RoboCapital

Hello, am I audible?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah, audible now. Please.

Ketan Athawale
Equity Research Analyst, RoboCapital

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. I wanted to know revenue and margin guidance for FY 2025 and FY 2026.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah. So, on consolidated weighted, as you see that, we are already at, we did 32 billion revenues in last year. We are going to have a somewhere 12-15% increment on that. That's what we are expecting, around 15% on the total revenue side. And in the margin, I would say that, we did around 511 crores of EBITDA last year, last financial year. We are hopeful that we will be close to that or cross that EBITDA this year. That's the way we are looking forward.

If you talk about the slide number, I would say 34 in my investor presentation, which gives you the analysis and the operating margin rate, which if you see FY 2024, we did around 24% of operating margin. This quarter we are down 22%, and last quarter we were at 23%. We look forward that next two quarters will give us impetus, and we will be going to maintain our operating margin of 24% on that rate.

Ketan Athawale
Equity Research Analyst, RoboCapital

Okay, got it. And, on the broadband side, so this is our major focus right now, if I understand correctly. So how will be our broadband growth trajectory for next three to four years?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Broadband, we are looking forward. We already crossed one billion. We are looking forward that we are going to add every year around 100K to 120K. That's the average I'm talking about next four years. So it's going to be somewhere around 500,000 more in the next four to five years. So we are looking forward that we will be close to 1.5 million net addition in the broadband sector.

Ketan Athawale
Equity Research Analyst, RoboCapital

Okay. And, one last question, if I may ask. So for our profitability to come back, what will be the triggers for that?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

The triggers are that we have to increase our ARPU in the market, and with the subscriber additions, we have to see the opportunity, even we can increase our ARPUs both in both business segments. Or we can layer the services more and more, do the bundling of these services, which we have started doing, entertainment plus connectivity plus. As you know, we just launched our new app, which is with gaming TV Everywhere. We already launched OTT. So all things together we have to do, and then do the layering of the services where we get more and more revenues from our households. So those are the strategies on which we have to work so that we can increase our profitability and margins in the business.

Yes, as you grow more and you leverage your ecosystem, then you can negotiate better with our vendors and all, which we are also trying to do. Somewhere the cost rationalization and all also are on the way. So all those things, all the combination of those things will help us in increasing the margin and the profitability.

Ketan Athawale
Equity Research Analyst, RoboCapital

Got it. Thank you so much. All the best.

Operator

Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press Star and One to ask a question. The next follow-up question is from the line of Sahil Vora from M&S Associates. Please go ahead.

Sahil Vora
Equity Analyst, M&S Associates

Hi. I just had a couple of follow-up question. Looking at the opportunity size for cable TV service, there exists a massive opportunity there from the TV dark homes. However, our subscriber growth has been slow, so what exactly do we attribute this slow growth to? Is it the higher competition from the DTH players and other players, or the under-penetration in many states beyond Gujarat and West Bengal?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Sahil, two things that if you have seen the pyramid, there is a pressure from OTT in the tip of the pyramid, but yes, that is not much of concern on that way, because the affluent houses is not going away from the TV. Yes, their viewing pattern is getting changed, but TV is there at the home. Very few houses where the TV is totally going out, so that's on the industry level. It's more of yeah, viewing pattern is getting changed in the tip.

At the lower level, you are right that the affordability to get into village or get into the rural areas versus the free dish TV, which is more of from the Prasar Bharati side and the government side, which is going on, that is affecting us because Prasar Bharati is giving private channels also right now, just like here, and those that is becoming competition in the rural areas, and second is with the lower affordability to go into those markets. We because we are in the cable business, and we, I'd have to reach that village through my connectivities and all, and that is one of the reason that we are going into the Headend-in-the-Sky HITS project, which Saurav Ji has mentioned.

I will, I'll give you more and more perspective of HITS in the next call, when we are close to launch. We want to give that because it has a many, many benefits. One of the main benefit is what you've seen in the cable dark areas and rural areas, which is going to get totally available for us, and we will have a very good competition with that. So that's one of the aspect of that HITS. So yes, we are working towards that, and that's the way we have to go towards that, and increase the potential of giving services in the whole country.

Sahil Vora
Equity Analyst, M&S Associates

Okay, sir, that's good to hear. I had a question about the app. So is it free for all, or can you monetize it with different plans?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

See, this is, right now, this is free for my subscribers, which is the cable and my broadband subscribers. They can, whether it is a cable or whether it is broadband, they can see the TVs and all, which they can subscribe and all, that's the TV Everywhere. Plus, the gaming is the subscription. They have to subscribe as well. DistroTV is free right now. A lot of channels. Some channels, they have to pay, but it is kind of like an additional channels they are getting without any cost. That is more to increase the stickiness. Plus, the layering of services, I will say the, the OTT, the daily product also, we are going to get, into this app, which the integrations and all are going to happen right now. And that's, that's the second phase, which is there.

So OTT will come also on this app only, and, so all type of entertainment and all, and this is available for my own customers, that's cable and all, and any new customer which is coming there.

Sahil Vora
Equity Analyst, M&S Associates

... Okay, got it. I also wanted to understand the rationale behind the customer retention. And is there a correlation between the greater number of content and the subscribers retained or some kind of thing?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yes, you're right, that as you, you have to give what customer wants, so that they should not look for, going out of your platform. That is what is happening right now. I'm seeing that the churn is high. This means it's not that customer is not, because they already are having the entertainment, so they are not, not averse from the entertainment. So they are going somewhere, some other platforms or free platforms, or I will say free OTTs or some other DTH and all, where they are going, for the, better services, for the better content and all. So you have to meet your customer, that whatever customer wants, whether he wants, TV entertainment, he wants the, OTT type of, he wants different.

Dish TV has lot of channels, which is not there in India, and is streaming those type of content. Whether he wants the gaming services, whether he wants the OTT, all those type of things we have to start providing to the customer so that the customer's stickiness increases. That's what we are increasing, is what we are trying to do, because the main concern is the churn. It's not the additions. We are doing healthy additions in the whole organization, but always we are seeing that whenever there is new event or the end of one event, we are seeing the churn increases. So we have to contain that churn by giving the other attractive services at those periods to the customers.

Sahil Vora
Equity Analyst, M&S Associates

Okay. Thank you, sir, for the detailed response. I just have one last follow-up on the CapEx question of the previous participant. Is the split still equal among maintenance CapEx and growth CapEx? And what are your plans for CapEx for H2 in hand?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah. H2 CapEx, I will say, yeah, you are right, that, we are doing the maintenance CapEx also and growth CapEx also in the same INR 185 crore. The total CapEx we are looking forward for the year is around INR 350 crores, where INR 200 crore is going to be the cable TV and around INR 150 crore is going to be the broadband. So that's, that's the CapEx, we are looking for.

Sahil Vora
Equity Analyst, M&S Associates

Okay. Sir, given the company is actively exploring B2B mode of growth in broadband, how much of CapEx savings will that help us going forward?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

I will say that, last year, if you see around, we did spend INR 200 crore in the bottom CapEx. Last year, we have given you INR 400 crore of the CapEx, the whole INR 200, INR 100, in the both segment. Now it is coming down to INR 350 crore. So you can calculate on that basis based on our projections and all that. Bottom CapEx is INR 150 crore this year, as to be.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press Star and One to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Rahil Shah from Crown Capital. Please go ahead.

Rahil Shah
Equity Research Analyst, Crown Capital

Hello. Hi, can you hear me?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah. Hi, hi, hi. We are still audible. Please go ahead, go on.

Rahil Shah
Equity Research Analyst, Crown Capital

So just one question, with regards to the outlook you have given on the revenue front. I believe in the last call you had mentioned that you will be able to, you know, do the same growth as the FY 2024, which was 20% or so. But are you saying that this year you'll be looking at 15%, in the region of 15%. Is this solely based on the fact that Q2 was weak or and you don't see that H2 will be able to, you know, cover the rest of it? So if you can just, you know, explain how you expect H2 to be.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah. Yeah, you're right. So yes, that, if you see YOY basis, we are 9% up, but, QOQ basis, we are just 1% up in the revenue side, in the consolidated. So based on that, we have lowered our revenue projections, which was, we have given a 20% based on the quarter one what we did. Now, yes, it is coming down to somewhere around 15%, seeing the quarter two performance right now. Quarter three and quarter four, we are really hopeful, and we are seeing that trend, that we are going to be back into the game. But yes, somewhere we are going to close 15%-17% somewhere because of the setback in this quarter.

Rahil Shah
Equity Research Analyst, Crown Capital

Okay. And any other new exciting product we should be looking forward to in H2?

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Yeah. The H2 is mainly I'll come back with you on the HITS project, plus I'll come back with the phase two of the GTPL Buzz , which we are going to go in a very big way, with how we are combining and we are trying to transform the whole company's mix, and how we are going to the layering of the services. Plus, how HITS is going to help us in expanding the business very fast and very effective basis, where we are going to save a lot of cost also, and a lot of market is going to get open for us. So all those things are which I will, most likely we are going to cover in next quarter call.

Rahil Shah
Equity Research Analyst, Crown Capital

Okay. Okay, got it. Thank you and all the best.

Operator

Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press Star and One to ask a question. As there are no further questions from the participants, I would now like to hand the conference over to the manager for closing comments.

Piyush Pankaj
Chief Strategy Officer, GTPL Hathway Limited

Thanks. I would like to express my thanks to every participant who took their time out to attend the call. I would like to thank NK for organizing this call. For any queries, please feel free to contact with Progeon Capital, who are our investor relations advisors. Thank you, and have a good day.

Operator

On behalf of Emkay Global Financial Services, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.

Powered by