Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to GTPL Hathway's Q2 and H1 FY 2026 earnings call conference call hosted by Emkay Global Financial Services Limited. 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 star, then zero on your touchtone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pranav Kshatriya, Emkay Global Financial Services Limited. Thank you and over to you, Mr. Kshatriya.
Thank you so much. Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to welcome the management and thank them for this opportunity. We have with us today Mr. Anirudhsinh Jadeja, Promoter and Managing Director, Mr. Piyush Pankaj, Business Head and Chief Strategy Officer, and Mr. Saurav Banerjee, Chief Financial Officer. I shall now hand over the call to Mr. Anirudhsinh Jadeja for his opening remarks. Thank you and over to you, sir.
GTPL Hathway to discuss the financial and operational performance of quarter two FY 2026. This quarter was marked by sustained operational performance and reaffirmation of our leadership position in both digital cable TV and broadband services. As India's largest MSO, our focus continues to be on expanding our footprint, enhancing customer experience, and delivering value through innovation and service excellence. In the digital cable TV segment, we maintain our market share while continuing to upgrade infrastructure to support higher quality content delivery. On the broadband front, we continue to make progress in growing our subscriber base and deepening our presence in key markets by offering high-speed, affordable Internet solutions. I now hand over to Mr. Piyush Pankaj to walk through the KPIs for our cable TV and broadband segment and share insights of our achievements in the second quarter.
Thanks, Mr. Jadeja. Good evening, everyone. Let me start off by mentioning KPIs for both our business segments. First, cable TV segment. Our digital cable TV subscriber base as on 30th September 2025 stood at 9.50 million. Among the total subscriber base, paying subscribers stood at 8.80 million. The total business partners count stands at more than 48,000+, and they remain key enablers of our quest on expanding our Pan-India presence. In the broadband business, the active subscriber base at the end of the quarter stood at 1.05 million, adding 10,000 new subscribers, which is an increase of approximately 1% on a YoY basis. Home pass stood at 5.95 million as of 30th September 2025. Of all available home passes, 75% are available for FTTX. The broadband ARPU for quarter two FY 2026 stood at INR 465, increased by INR 5 as compared to last year quarter two.
Average data consumption per month stood at 410 GB, a 17% increase YoY. As part of our strategic roadmap, we remain focused on both organic and inorganic opportunities to drive sustainable growth across our core business segments. On the HITS distribution update, we are gearing up to operate the platform in the third quarter. This will further enhance our distribution capabilities and reach. We will share more details and commercial rollout plans once the platform goes live. Bundling cable broadband and OTT offerings, expansion into new geographies, and consolidating our presence in existing geographies continues as planned, with a clear objective of increasing our total addressable market and deepening our customer reach across India. I will now hand over the call to Mr. Saurav Banerjee , who will take you through the financial performance of the company.
Thank you, Mr. Piyush. Good evening to all the participants. For the quarter, on a consolidated level, our total revenue grew by 12% YoY and 6% QoQ, basis to INR 9,649 million. Subscription revenue for Q2 FY 2026 is at INR 3,024 million. The broadband revenue stood at INR 1,393 million and registered a growth of 2% on a yearly and sequential basis. Consolidated EBITDA stood at INR 1,101 million, with an EBITDA margin of 11.4%. Net profit for Q2 FY 2026 stood at INR 93 million. Our consolidated operating EBITDA stood at INR 1,016 million in Q2 FY 2026, registering an operating margin of 22%. On the standalone performance front, our total revenue grew by a healthy 17% YoY and 7% sequentially to INR 6,402 million. Subscription revenue saw a decrease of 3% QoQ and decreased marginally by 1% YoY to INR 2,191 million.
Standalone EBITDA stood at INR 593 million, with an EBITDA margin of 9.3%. The standalone net profit for Q2 FY 2026 stood at INR 54 million. The balance sheet of the company remains healthy, with the net debt to equity of 0.2x as on 30th September. Net cash flow from operations for the half year stood at a robust INR 1,291 million. I would now request the moderator to open the floor for the Q&A session.
Shall we begin with the question and answer session?
Yeah, please go ahead.
Thank you very much. We'll now begin with 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 headsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Mr. (Inaudible). Please proceed.
Hello.
Yeah, [Rehan], your loss is very, very vague.
Am I audible now?
Yeah, go ahead.
Sir, I have two questions. First, on the receivable side, we have noticed a significant increase in receivable and payables this quarter due to broadcaster settlements. Should we view this as a one-time working capital movement or something? What would be the process going forward? We have to see here.
Yeah. If you see the trend from the last four to five years, the trade receivables and trade payables both go up in the middle of the year and again taper down at the end of the year. It's like a balloon which has been created, or you can say an S-curve which has been created. It goes up, will curve, and then go down again in the September, in the March month. This is because of the broadcasters, because as you do the deal with the broadcasters and you start paying the broadcaster's P channel cost, and broadcasters start paying you your marketing and incentive incomes. Both go in parallel. If P channel cost has increased, your marketing and incentive receivables have increased also. If you see, there is an increase of around INR 400 crore both sides, INR 467 crore one side and INR 434 crore one side.
Both are mainly because of the broadcasters, which you will find that it tapers down in March. You can see the trend from the last five years. You will see the same trend.
Okay. Okay, sir. Just my second question is around the capacity addition side. For broadband, subscriber additions have remained flat despite rising data consumption and average revenue per user. What specific measures are you taking to accelerate net additions, especially in regions like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana? What are you expanding aggressively this side?
Yeah. Broadband side, if you say, yes, we are in the B2C segment. We are in the Gujarat market, and the Gujarat market is still there are a lot of potential. As we have the extraction rate of 17% right now, this has to go up with the time. Yes, you're right that the last two years are a bit muted for us because of the entry of the big players, mainly Jio and Airtel, and then the air fiber technology, which has come into the play. That has put our growth rate a bit slower on that way. Yes, seeing the whole scenario of wireless and wired, as the wireless cost is increasing, we are hopeful that the wired will start picking up.
As you see, out of 350 million households, only 44 million households are in the wired right now, which has to go up to around 100 million in the next five years. There is a lot of potential in the broadband side, but this is a temporary setback, you can say, because everyone is new players are coming into the market and take over the deep pocket. There is no need at all. Still, we are maintaining our subscriber base. We are not losing anything. That is the main thing at this point of time because of the competition. We are looking forward to expanding through our B2B model also and B2C model also. Hopefully, the future will start seeing again, we are back on the growth stage, which was earlier in Q2 2023, 2024, 2023, 2024.
That's the hope we can, we are keeping it up and we are investing into the business. The potential is very good as well in broadband.
Okay. Thank you for that great clarification also, and I'll drop it in the group.
Sure thing.
Thank you, sir. Our next question is from Aditya (Inaudible) from Accenture Research. Please proceed ahead with your question.
Yes, am I audible?
Yeah, Aditya, please go ahead.
My question is regarding your company's growth. Given the continuous decline in paid post-COVID, despite healthy revenue and subscriber growth, what concrete step is GTPL Hathway planning over the next three to five years to rebound profitability? Also, can management share specific financial and operational milestones, including expected improvement in paid margins and ROE in light of rising costs and competitive pressures?
Yeah, Aditya. Aditya, one thing I want to mention is that the company is maintaining its EBITDA margin, operating EBITDA margin I'm talking about, which is you can see in the slide, operational performance slide, which is after the P&L slide of console. There, it is 22% margin, which we are maintaining, and it's a healthy margin which we are maintaining throughout. Yes, you're right that if this year also I'll see that in the quarter to quarter, year to year, we are down by INR 30 million in our EBITDA, which is from INR 1,130 million to INR 1,100 million. This decline is there from the last four, five quarters, you can say. In some quarter, we have gone up, some quarter, we have gone down. We remain at this range only. The growth is not there in the EBITDA side and all, which we have seen.
Yes, numbers are growing. Everything is growing. Somewhere, we have to work on two things: how we can expand our reach and our footprint so that we can get more numbers, and second, how can we conserve our cost? If you see that we have mentioned that we are launching Headend-In-The-Sky p latform, which is going to give us both these benefits because we are going to have an all-India footprint, and we can start the business very fast in any place. It's like reach is like 100% in India, which is not there right now. The second is on the cost side. It is going to be the delivery costs. We are going to save in the delivery costs. Already, we have started taking the steps towards that where we can improve our margins and our EBITDA. Plus, as you know, we are doing the layering of the services.
We have launched the cable entertainment, the broadband, plus TV everywhere, plus OTT, plus gaming. All those things, we are launching and doing the layering of the services for the customer and doing the combination of the services to the customer. All these things will improve our retention and sales in the market. If you talk about an MSO side, we are the only one who is taking this type of steps in the market and taking these bold steps to gain market share. That's the case.
Okay, sir. Thank you. I got my answer.
Thank you, sir. Our next question is from the line of (Inaudible) . Please proceed ahead.
Hello, sir. Am I audible?
Yes.
Thank you for the opportunity. I actually wanted a fair bit of understanding on ARPU. Are there any differences in ARPU between Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 markets? How is the company approaching these variations?
See, what GTPL does is that we provide the packages. The packages are ranging from, if you talk about from INR 200- INR 400 for the customer, INR 450 for the customer. It depends on which customer is taking what. It might be possible that a rural customer is also taking the HD package, which is costing INR 450 or INR 500. In urban also, there are the segments where they can take INR 200, INR 250 package. Yes, you are right. Generally, what we are seeing is that in Tier 1 cities, people go for more higher packages in average. Tier 2 cities and Tier 3 cities, that's the way it is. You will find that there are different ARPUs, and you're right that Tier 1 ARPUs are higher, Tier 2 moderate, and Tier 3 mainly in the rural and all.
You will find that the ARPUs are lower because they are opting for the lower packages.
Got it, sir. Adding to that, how does ARPU differ between new subscribers versus long-term subscribers? Are there any strategies to increase ARPU for the long-term subscribers?
No, it depends on which market you are entering for the new customer. If I am getting the customer from Mumbai, they are opting for higher packages. If I am going for Chhattisgarh or I am going for Bilaspur, I will say, then you will find that they are going for the moderate packages, middle packages rather than the higher packages. It all depends because I will say that if you talk about HD packages, HD packages, if I am going to the metro, I am seeing that takeup is as good as 30%, 35%. If I am going into any breakdowns, there it is around 10%, 12%. That is the way it has happened. We have to see according to the market, and accordingly, we have to pick that one product we have to push for those markets.
If a higher paying market, then we have to push for bigger packages. If it is a middle town, then we have to push for middle packages. That is the strategy on which we go that we have to see. We give the promotions and all to the customer so that they can go from lower packages to higher packages. Those promotions we do, we give them the eyeballs of different channels that they can use to those higher packages channels and off. All those efforts, the cross-selling and all upselling is happening in the market, happening in the market.
Got it. Got it, sir. One more question. I actually wanted an update on the BharatNet project. In terms of the last calls, you had highlighted that some litigation issues are there. Any resolution on the same? Any new tender?
No, because it's already been, again, the whole tender will start to go into company, and we have to see because it's a tender. I can't comment on right now on those. Again, the tender is happening.
Okay, sir. Also, any new tenders quoted by the government, like our bids, since some listed companies do keep announcing all the windfalls?
Yeah, yeah. We can't disclose where we are bidding and all, but once we get a successful bid, we have to announce it in the market. We will do that. We just assure you that we are bidding wherever the tenders are coming. Big tenders, small tenders, we are bidding for those, and whatever we are winning, we are announcing it in the market.
Okay, sir. Got it. Thank you so much. All the best.
Thanks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one on your phone. The next question is from the line of (Inaudible) . Please proceed ahead.
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity. I have a question that the subscription revenue has been seeing a marginal decline on both a standalone and consolidated basis. Could you share your perspective on what led to this decline? Additionally, what are your expectations for subscription revenue over the next couple of quarters?
See, this quarter is, I would say that if you see that we have witnessed a higher churn. The whole industry has witnessed a higher churn during FY 2025, mainly this quarter, quarter two, FY 2026. A few things are there that, one, the quarter two is always not good for the industry because of the rain. This time, it was excessive rain all over the country. Because of that, the effort for new sales and retention hampered, a bit hampered on that way. The second thing is that quarter two always the big events like cricket or big sporting events are not happening in the quarter two. After IPL, there were no big events. The big event started at the 18th of September. That would be in the mid-September. The gain on those sides, big events and all, was not there.
Plus, the whole rain and excessive rains and all, that hampered our subscriber base. If you see, we are down by 100,000 this quarter from 9.6 million. We are at 9.5 million on our subscriber base. That has hampered us in the revenue side also in the next three months. We are down by around INR 10 crore, if you see, from year-to-year basis. From INR 312 crore, we are at INR 302 crore. That is what has impacted there. Yes, this quarter has started very good. As you know, a lot of events are happening already, India plus West Indies after the Asia Cup is happening, and then Australia tour is there. The rain effect has already been gone. Generally, quarter three and quarter four give us the boost, and we take the number back. Quarter two is always bad from this basis.
That is what happened in this quarter. That is why we are down by around INR 10 crore in YoY, which we are hopeful that we recover in quarter three and quarter four.
Okay. I have a further question. What are the sort of the early feedback and trends you are seeing in the market from competitive broadband distribution methods in terms of air fiber and very recently satellite broadband?
See, air fiber is yes, it is impacting because the share of net addition has gone down for every place. Air fiber has gained from the last six to eight months, you can see. Now it is tapering down. The whole effect is tapering down now, and again, our net addition is increasing. Now it's increasing, again coming back to the same level, almost to the same level in the area. Satellite is still to be launched. Being that it is still not tested in the Indian market, and the equipment costs are high, we have to see how they are going to give it to the customers, whether it is going to be the discount, what is going to be their strategies on that, because otherwise, the cost of equipment is very high in the satellite side right now.
We have to wait for what impact satellite will give or whether it will give or not. We are hopeful that satellite will not hamper any growth for us. Air fiber already is tapered down, so we are again coming back to the same side.
Okay. I have a last one more question that costing-wise, cable and air would be superior to satellite. If one had to differentiate between the two, that is the cable and the broadband and the air fiber on metrics of speed, convenience to setup, and cost, how would you describe the competitiveness there?
Competitiveness always, cable is much better technology. If you say, if it is from the web or anything, if you're streaming, cable is a better technology on that basis. It's a base technology that we are talking about. Technology-wise, if you talk about.
[Foreign language]
I don't know what is happening. Everyone just become silent.
Can we move forward?
Yeah, I didn't, you were not audible. Can we, for the question? I am, I didn't get the answer. Hello.
Can we talk later on this, this question?
Yeah, yeah.
Y eah, sure. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of (Inaudible) . Please proceed ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you. I had a couple of questions. Could you please share the management's target or benchmark on the ARPU's growth over the next two to three years, especially what level of improvement are we anticipating from the pricing strategies? How does this fit the overall revenue growth through bundling with OTT segment?
See, ARPU, the main focus is the subscriber-based growth. As I said, we are coming up with the new technology and new delivery platforms and all. We are going to be very aggressive on the subscriber base. ARPU, as you say, India is a sensitive market. We have to go increase the ARPU basis that when we can increase in ARPU. You can see our trend also. We are doing it in that way that in the last five years, we have increased around 3x , 3x-4x . That's the way it is going to be. Yes, subscriber base, we are going to be aggressive.
Got it, sir. It's had been a couple of good quarters since the company decided to explore the B2B model for broadband growth. While expectations were like faster subscriber additions in pace, it has slowed down. Are there any headwinds which we are seeing or anything you would want to add in?
No. B2B is still the focus. As you know, these four to five months, we are more concentrated towards our new technology and all. Yes, B2B is the focus area. We will do that. We will see the growth in that. Already 100+ subscriber base are there in the B2B, which we are expecting that it will grow at a good pace.
Have we taken any measures or anything like that? Our active subscribers have also been in the same ballpark as we see for the last couple of quarters.
Yeah, I already said that because of the competition, we are maintaining our subscriber base on that basis. We are hopeful that we will start getting the growth as the potentials are very high, and we are working towards that. We will start seeing the growth in both B2C segment and B2B segment. We are already taking the steps towards that.
All right, sir. Hoping for a good quarter next, like in the coming few sessions, sir. Thank you so much, and Happy Diwali, sir.
Yeah, same to you, brother.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one on your phone. The next question is from the line of Vivek Gupta from Star Investment. Please proceed ahead.
Hello. Hi. Am I audible?
Yeah, Vivek, please go ahead.
Hello, sir. You had earlier guided for a CapEx of INR 350-INR 4 00 crores for FY 2026 with about INR 80 crores incurred in Q1. Could you update us on the CapEx spend during this quarter and elaborate on what this spending primarily pertains to, like whether it's for set-top box or cable network expansion or modernization or other strategic initiatives?
Yeah. The total CapEx for actual is INR 153 crore right now, where we have spent around INR 90 crore in CATV. The rest is in the broadband, which is around INR 53 crore. On INR 90 crore, I would say that around INR 20 crore has gone into the HITS project side, and INR 50 crore is mainly into the STBs . Network is very low, but mainly into the STBs , we will say 95%- 97% of the set-top boxes are. The broadband CapEx is mainly on the CPE and customer acquisition cost. It is about INR 63 crore, which is gone. We are maintaining that the total CapEx will be somewhere in the range of INR 350 crore, including both the business segments.
Okay. The HITS platform rollout will be a significant strategic initiative for the company. Could you share the details on the CapEx allocated towards this launch and the key areas where this investment is being directed to?
Yeah. In my initial opening remarks, I have said that we are launching it in the quarter three. Very soon, we are launching it. As we launch, we will give you all the details about what is the CapEx and what are the expectations out of this. We are just giving some bigger expectations right now and bigger strategy. Once it will be launched officially, we will share all the information about it.
Okay. Cool. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Priti Agarwal from SK Associates. Please proceed.
Thank you so much for the opportunity. I would like to know that this subscription revenue has been seeing a marginal decline on both a standalone and consolidated basis. Could you share your perspective on what led to this decline?
Subscription revenue, I have already said that this quarter, because of excessive rain and all, the number of subs has gone down, which we are going to recover in quarter three and quarter four. Quarter two is always bad. If you see the trend from the last four or five years, because of the excessive rains and no big events happened because of the rains and all, we always find it difficult for the sales and retention. Because of that, there is a marginal lower in the revenue side. If you see in the quarter to quarter, in the standalone, we are at the same level. At the consolidated level, we are down. We are hopeful that quarter three and quarter four, we will start gaining the revenues.
I understand, sir. What are your expectations for subscription revenue over the next couple of quarters? Do you anticipate a stabilization or a recovery trend? What initiatives are being undertaken to support that improvement?
See, if you see, we have the churn somewhere around between 8%-1 1%, which is going on. If you see, that is what we are expecting. Yeah. Churn has come down from earlier times, but still it is at 8%- 11%, between 8%- 11%. That's what we are hoping that we are going to maintain that churn. This quarter is exceptional as we have kept the bid. We will again go back to that churn level and we'll maintain that.
Understood. I wanted to know what sort of the early feedback and trend you are seeing in the market from competitive broadband distribution methods in terms of air fiber and very recently satellite broadband.
See, actually, I have given the answer. Air broadband, yes, it has a euphoria which happened from the last six to eight months. Now it is tapering down. Satellite has still to get launched, and we have to see how it is going to affect us. We are hopeful that the equipment costs are very high, so it might not affect us. We have to see how the go-to-market happens for the satellite technology.
Okay. Cost is cable, and it will be superior to satellite. If one had to differentiate between the two, cable broadband and air fiber, on matrix of speed, convenience to setup, cost, how would you describe competitiveness there?
See, it is very difficult to differentiate all those things. Yes, just one statement that FTTH is a proven technology. Worldwide, it's a proven technology from 2014, 2015 onwards, and it has proven years. Air fiber, if you see the U.S. market, it has come from the last three to four years. In India, it has come now. They have to prove that level of consistency, which FTTH is giving. It is very hard to say that this speed is higher, that speed is higher. It is very hard to differentiate between them.
Okay. Understood. Thank you so much, sir.
Thanks, Priti.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of [Nakul Doshi]. Please proceed ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. I just wanted to know if you could share the company's approach to subscription pricing for the OTT platform, and are there plans to revise the pricing or introduce tiered plans for different audience segments? How might this impact our subscriber growth?
Just one line statement, Nakul, that we want to be very competitive in our OTT pricing. That's what we are providing in the market right now. You know that OTT is provided by competition also and all. We want to be very competitive. This whole strategy comes from the market situation, what is happening, how you are providing it as a single one with combo with other products and all. All those strategies come into play. We are going to be very, very competitive in the market. That is for sure.
I understand that your strategy would be towards more of attracting subscribers as compared to driving higher ARPU.
You're right. You're right on that.
Our internal focus would be this.
More of customer acquisition and retention. That's what we are focusing on.
Would we be having any specific tiered plans or premium offerings?
It's already there. If you see, it's already there. The tiered one is already there, where you can do the cross-selling, upselling, everything. It's already there, Nakul.
Understood. Just one last question. Generally, our marketing incentive income increases somewhere 20%- 25% YoY, and likewise, P channel costs used to increase by around 15%. This quarter, both this income and associated expense increased sharply by 6% more than the usual range. What would be the reason for the same?
If you see the YoY net pay channel cost, which I'm talking about on my operational slide, if you see the operational performance slide, in the net pay channel costs, there is a saving from the YoY side. It's almost flat if you see, which we talked about in the bigger numbers. There is no increase in the pay channel cost right now. We have maintained that. Please refer to that slide, the operational performance slide in the investor presentation, slide number 22.
Okay. Just one last thing. In terms of competition on the cable TV side, sir, you mentioned that the competition is quite high. Can you share how is the competitive landscape today with DD Free Dish TV, or is it still going strong in other metro cities as well?
See, DD, they are functioning on a different, you can say, about different regulations and all. The competition is not there on that side because they are going on the auctions of their spectrums and all. We are on the different side. That is the way. Yes, the market accommodates everyone. That's what is happening. Right now, a lot of customers have the free day, and that's how we can take them back, mainly in the rural side.
On the shift of DTH viewers to cable TV, what is the opportunity you are seeing there as of today? Do you feel a shift is happening, or are there some roadblocks in the way of this shift?
See, Nakul, you have to understand that there are 350 million households. Out of that, only 220 million households are TV households right now. There are still 130 million households that are the TV dark area, or you can say they don't have the TV in households. There is a large opportunity. Out of this 220 million, there is cable, there is DTH, there are Free Dish and all, which is all the opportunities are there. DTH also, you have to win the DTH customers back, which we have the different schemes and aggressive plans and aggressive marketing for those. We have to win from the other MSO and smaller MSOs, the consolidation of the MSOs by organic and inorganic. That's what we are doing. We have to come with the plans so that we can win the rural market from Free Dish back.
The third is, there is a cable dark area and hilly areas and everywhere where the TVs are not reached at all. On those households, there is a large opportunity. The opportunities are very big still. We are working towards that. We are investing in the new technologies and all where we can have all over India reach. We can be aggressive in the market to gain the subscriber market share.
Understood. That's it from my side. Thank you for the detailed answer.
Thanks. Thanks, Nakul.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one on your phone. Thank you so much. If there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments.
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 Emkay for organizing this call. For any queries, please feel free to contact with MUFGIR, who are our Investor Relation advisors. Thank you and have a good day. Happy Diwali to all.
Thank you, sir. On behalf of Emkay Global Financial Services Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.