Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3 FY26 earnings call of Zee Entertainment Enterprises 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 touch-tone phone. Please note that this call is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ankit Arora, Head of Investor Relations, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Shashti. Hello everyone. Welcome to our nine months and Q3 FY26 earnings discussion. We hope you had an opportunity to review the results. Today, we are joined by our Deputy CEO and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Mukund Galgali, along with the senior management team. Our CEO, Mr. Punit Goenka, is currently in the US, and due to unavoidable last-minute exigencies, he is unable to join the call today. We will start with Mukund covering the details about our operating and financial performance, and we will subsequently open the floor for question-and-answer session.
Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that some of the statements made or discussed on today's conference call will be forward-looking in nature and must be viewed in conjunction with risks and uncertainties we face. The company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements publicly. With that said, I would now hand the call over to Mukund for his remarks.
Thank you, Ankit, and good evening, everyone. It is always a pleasure to connect and interact with all of you. I hope you had the opportunity to go through our Q3 FY26 results, which have been uploaded on our corporate websites as well as the stock exchange portal. In my remarks today, I will focus on providing context to our performance during this quarter. I will begin with an update on our digital business. We are pleased with the progress made during this quarter in digital business. We released 39 shows and movies, including 11 original series.
These enhanced content offerings across seven languages, coupled with a revised pricing strategy on our digital entertainment platform, Zee5, has resulted in a 73% year-on-year increase in our digital revenue to INR 4180 million. This marks our highest quarterly revenue so far in the digital business. In this business, we continue to maintain a balanced cost structure, and coupled with strong revenue growth, it has resulted in us posting an EBITDA of INR 564 million, compared to a loss of INR 1,362 million in the same quarter last year.
This marks the first quarter in which our digital business has delivered a positive EBITDA. The revenue growth was aided by syndication revenues and revised pricing agreement with a telco player during this quarter, along with improved advertising revenues. We remain confident of improving our unit economics in this business in the medium term and drive sustained returns on our investments. Moving to subscription revenue, our overall subscription revenue grew by 7% year-on-year, primarily driven by the growth in digital business and successful renewals of contracts with BPOs in the broadcast segment.
Turning to our broadcast business, the overall linear TV landscape continues to remain stable, with weekly impressions of above 28 billion and a weekly reach exceeding 730 million. We continue to maintain our position as India's strong number two TV entertainment network. As we look at the viewership share for quarter three, we gained 60 basis points year-on-year, taking our network share to 17.5%. Our flagship GEC channel ZTV continued to witness strong GRP growth during the quarter.
Along with this, we have also fortified our position in the East, and with Zee Bangla regaining its leadership, we are also pleased to share that Zee remained the fastest-growing network in the South, with a share of 17.7%. For Zee Marathi, the new content slate has resonated strongly with the consumers across Maharashtra, enabling us to achieve a market share of 33.6%. This reaffirms that the strategic initiatives we have implemented over the last few quarters are delivering results in the right direction. On the advertising front, we continue to observe a gradual and sequential pickup in the ad spends by advertisers.
Although it declined on a YOY basis, largely led by softness in FMCG spending, advertising revenues were up 6% quarter on quarter, and though they are down 9% year-on-year, reflecting a slow but steady pace of recovery. While we are witnessing encouraging conversation with advertisers, however, we have yet to see the full benefits of GST cut and the sustained pickup in FMCG advertising spends towards brand building. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about a gradual recovery, aided by our ability to leverage our improved network share and continue growth in the digital business and positive spends by FMCG players on their brand-building initiatives.
Moving to our music business, during the quarter, we garnered over 51 billion total video views, with more than 175 million subscribers on YouTube. This performance was driven by our new age music catalog, along with a rich library of over 18,000 songs. Profitability in the business remains healthy, and we continue to diversify our catalog investments across various language markets. On the studio business, during the quarter, we released eight movies, one in Hindi and seven in regional languages, of which three were our own productions and five were distribution deals.
We also acquired theatrical and satellite rights for Kantara: Chapter 1 and Akhanda 2 during this quarter, which has contributed to a strong growth in our other sales and services. Our continued focus on the syndication vertical, as indicated in the previous quarters, is also showing promising results, though it is at a nascent stage. As a result, overall other sales and services grew seven times on a YOY basis. At this juncture, I would also like to touch upon the new strategic initiatives launched by the company during the fiscal.
The Microdrama App Bullet continues to garner steady gains with its unique model of gamifying the viewing experience and engaging consumers beyond content. In order to further tap into the younger consumer base, the company entered the kids' entertainment segment during the quarter with the launch of KidZee on ZEE5. Moving to cost and profitability, our overall operating cost increased 12% quarter on quarter, primarily due to higher programming cost on account of preponement of the ILT20 cricket matches into quarter three and acquisitions of Kantara: Chapter 1 and Akhanda 2.
Excluding these items, overall operational costs would have declined by mid-single digit on a quarter-on-quarter basis. With a 15% increase in operating revenue and tight management of fixed costs, our EBITDA margin improved by 310 basis points quarter on quarter to 10.5%. Profit after tax stood at INR 1,548 million, which grew to 2X on a sequential basis. On the balance sheet, our focused efforts to strengthen our liquidity and financial position continue. Cash and treasury investments as of December 2025 stood at INR 218 billion, comprising of cash of INR 5 billion, fixed deposits of INR 7 billion, and investments in liquid mutual funds of INR 9.8 billion.
Our content inventory declined as of December 2025, driven by disciplined and optimized acquisitions. Overall, our content inventory advances and deposits stood at INR 69.3 billion, down by INR 1.2 billion over the last nine months. Further, I'm also happy to share the progress we have made in our ESG journey, which is also reflected in our score of 51 out of 100 in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment in the media and entertainment sector. This ranks Zee amongst the top 5% of global players in this sector.
Going forward, we will continue to accelerate our ESG agenda. As we move ahead, our focus remains on driving revenue growth through digital business, implementation of new strategic initiatives, coupled with improved advertising environment. Prudent cost efforts and operating leverage will help drive profitability and cash generation. With that, I would like to hand it back to Ankit. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Mukund. Just a reminder for everyone before we start the Q&A session. Punit has been able to join the call, and he's available to answer any questions that you all may have. Shashti, now we can open the floor for question-and-answer session.
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 the touch-tone 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. We will take our first question from the line of Kavish Parekh from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question pertains to the advertising side of the business. So, nine months revenues are down about 12%. The year could very well end with the same kind of decline number. Now, it has been two, three quarters since you gave out details on key initiatives that you plan to pursue to sort of bring back some growth in the segment. So, do you think F27 could start seeing some benefits on account of this, coupled with a low base? And to add to that, network shares for you are also remaining steady. So, what would be your growth targets and maybe revised targets for the EBITDA margins for the next fiscal?
So, Kavish, slightly early if you were to kind of look at FY27, but the good news is that I'm sure, as to what you rightly mentioned, that we have been seeing the moderation in our YOY decline, and we continue to kind of have very encouraging and positive conversations with our FMCG players. And, of course, with the GST cuts and all what has happened over the last 12-18 months in the macro backdrop, we remain still optimistic, certainly for FY27 outlook, but it'll be too early for us to kind of give a specific number guidance at this stage.
However, we stay absolutely optimistic given where we have seen in FY26. We should start to kind of see an inflection point over the next few quarters.
And anything on margins or even that it's slightly early?
Slightly early, Kavish, at this stage. However, as to what I'm sure you would have noticed, we continue to kind of maintain a very, very prudent cost structure. You would have witnessed that in the nine months, which is what we have declared. Our endeavor is to improve margins from where we will end in FY26, and that certainly stays on the top priority.
Sure.
Let me just add, the two questions that you asked definitely go hand in hand, right? So, while we are optimistic about our advertising growth in the coming quarters, but it'll go hand in hand with the margin structure because I think our cost structure is pretty much at the leanest that it possibly could be in order to keep our market share, etc., at the levels that we have been operating at. So, just to add to that, Ankit, just to give a little bit more clarity. Sure.
Thanks a lot, Punit. Secondly, congratulations on hitting breakeven in ZEE5. Growth here was far beyond expectations, but that was partly aided by syndication revenues and the telecom deal. So, what would be a sustainable growth rate here? And then going into 4Q and F27, at what rate of growth, say, do you achieve a breakeven that's much more sustainable?
So, Kavish, just to add, I think.
Yes, I'll just.
Sure, Punit, please go ahead.
I'll go ahead, and I'll add what I've heard.
Sure. So, Kavish, as to what you would have noticed, I think this year we have reached an ARR business in ZEE5 of north of 1,000 crore. Without getting into specifics, it's a good enough number for us to kind of start looking at this business driving towards a medium-term sustained profitability. On the revenue front, while, of course, the base will now start to kind of come into play, but we still believe that ZEE5 will continue to be our fastest-growing vertical amongst other verticals, which is what we are present in.
And with the first quarter having achieved on the EBITDA positive side, we stay committed to us having better returns on this business as we move forward. That was the target, which is what we had said at the start of the year, to break even by FY26, that this should certainly reflect for the street that we stay committed, and with our prudent cost efforts and operating leverage, it will drive the business on a positive unit economics going forward.
Kavish, this is Mukund here. I would also like to add that with the seven language packs, which were rolled out in quarter two, I think those are getting sort of absorbed by the market, and the traction will continue, along with the new initiatives we have taken in terms of KidZee, which was just launched in the last week of December, and a few other initiatives which are linked to our digital business. We are confident of having accelerated growth in this business.
Sure. A bookkeeping question from my side. So, your depreciation and amortization amount has been declining quarter after quarter over the past few years. So, could you explain this movement?
No, this has been because in the last few years, our capitalization has not been very high. So, it's just a normal amortization as per the policy. And it's just that the rate of our addition to fixed assets has not been very high. The Bangalore Development Center has flattened. There were certain investments which we had done earlier in our tech center, which was amortized. That impact is being reflected in the books.
Understood. Understood. And if I can squeeze in just one more operational question, what would be your latest headcount number? And maybe could you help us with the trajectory or how has it moved over the past few quarters?
See, so the number is.
Yes, Mukund, if I can jump in here.
Sure. Sure, Punit. Yeah.
So, as Ankit also mentioned, we are operating, and I also reiterated, we are operating at a very optimized cost structure for the company. Our headcount is pretty much the most competitive in the industry in terms of number of people per revenue of rupee or dollar that we earn. And I think beyond that, giving any more information would be competitive in nature. But rest assured, we will continue to see optimization in terms of both quality and quantity in our manpower cost. Even if you look at our personnel cost, it's pretty much very, very competitive in the industry, and we'll continue to maintain that.
So, I remember the last time when we had this employee-based rationalization. I think our top tier of the management had sort of moved out, and we had elevated the next leg of the management. Something similar happened this time, or this rationalization was across the chain?
It's across the company. It's across the company, and Mukund, you can take it further.
Yeah. Kavish, this is based on our strategy of omnichannel. There were certain overlaps in linear and digital businesses, which made certain positions redundant. So, that was the genesis of the restructuring.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Umang Mehta from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question was on your core business cost, excluding the digital business. Could you call out the absolute impact of movie business and ILT20? How much was the incremental cost from these two? You mentioned that the cost would have been down 15%, so I'm getting a 390 crore number. Is that correct, and if yes, then what is the split between ILT20 and the movies?
So, I think just to kind of clarify on that number, Mukund mentioned in his opening remarks that excluding the movies and the ILT20 postponement, our overall total operational cost would have been down on a sequential basis by about mid-single digit.
Mid-single digit. Okay. And so, possible to give the absolute number for ILT20?
No, we wouldn't like to disclose that for confidential reasons.
Okay. Sure. And the second one was on the Star arbitration. So, I see a comment where you have mentioned that there are certain incremental developments and disclosures by Jio because of which the proceedings were adjourned. Possible to share anything incremental on this? I mean, just some update.
No. So, as you are aware, this is under arbitration, and due to reasons of confidentiality, we cannot reveal the nature of the developments. But yeah, the next hearing will be somewhere in July. So, I think that's all we can express on this call right now.
Sure. Got it. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we'd like to remind participants to ask a question, please press star and one on your phone. We'll take our next question from the line of Sameer Gupta from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. Most of them have been answered, but just a little clarification on the earlier participant's question. So, with the proceedings being adjourned to July, so earlier understanding was that there was a verdict that was expected in early 2026. Now, the expectation is in July 2026 we'll get the verdict, or that has even now postponed?
No, like I mentioned, the hearing will be in July, and the verdict will follow as soon as the tribunal is ready to deliver the verdict, which we cannot predict at our end.
Got it. But not before July, definitely.
Definitely. Yeah.
Okay. Second question is on the ad revenue. Now, I remember we had re-entered the free-to-air in February, and there was an expectation that there was some benefit that would come over with time. There is no real improvement in the revenue trajectory, in fact, the declining trajectory. In fact, the subscription revenue has also been strong, and there was expectation that there might be some impact on that. So, suffice to say now that the FTA, whatever benefit was to come, has come, and incrementally from here on, it is just the FMCG business or the overall environment which will pick up, will drive the ad revenue growth.
So, as you know that. Sorry.
Yeah, PT, go ahead, please.
Yeah. So, as you know, our business is largely dependent on FMCG because we are an FMCG-driven company from the advertising point of view. Any improvement in that sector has an immediate impact on our business. But it's a happy situation for me to say that other sectors are also coming in and adding to that. In fact, while the nine-month number, the gentleman had talked about 12% degrowth, but I'm happy to tell you that on a quarter-on-quarter basis, we've seen significant improvement in the advertising revenue growth. And I think the team can elaborate a little bit more on that.
And for the benefit of everyone, just for the benefit of everyone, sorry, I will have to log off in 10 minutes given that I'm calling at 5:00 A.M. from a very chilly United States. So, if you have any specific questions for me, please, this is the time, and then the team can take over.
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's all from me. Thanks.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Dixit Doshi from Whitestone Financial Advisors. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. Slightly new to the company. So, just wanted some clarification. So, is my understanding right that the other sales and services revenue is predominantly a Zee Studios and the syndication business? And the Zee Music revenue typically comes in subscription and ad revenue?
Yeah, that is correct. Your understanding is correct.
Okay. And in terms of ZEE5, so one of the earlier participants has mentioned that the revenue bump-up might be because of some telecom tie-up. So, if you can just elaborate, was there any one-off kind of revenue this quarter, or this kind of revenue and profitability is sustainable?
Yeah, of course. I mean, there has been a catch-up revenue in this quarter, as Ankit had mentioned, on account of some device pricing agreements with one of the telecom operators. But even if you strip this quarter's revenue off that catch-up revenue, still, ZEE5 is breaking even. So, that's something to factor in. Yes, there is a one-time income, but even without that and some syndication income, ZEE5 has broken even.
Okay. Can you call out what the one-off how much was the one-off this quarter?
So, just to kind of mention, over the last three quarters, we have been growing on a sequential basis of close to about 30-odd% in ZEE5. And similar is the number, which is what you would have seen if you would have stripped out what just Vikas mentioned.
Okay. And just one last question. We raised money through FCCB last year. I think we raised only 10% of what was approved by the board. So, any plans of raising more, or it will be doing only this much, the 10%?
No, we have deferred. For the time being, we have deferred the next drawdowns, and we have said it very clearly before also, unless we have full visibility on the deployment of those proceeds, we are not going to go for any drawdowns, so right now, we have deferred the next tranches.
Okay. Okay. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ankit Arora for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Do feel free to reach out to us if there are any follow-up questions as you do a deeper study of numbers. We will be available and look forward to speaking to you and meeting you in person soon. Thank you very much, and have a great evening.
Thank you. On behalf of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.