Thank you, Atharva. A warm welcome to all the participants to the Entertainment Network India Limited Q1 FY27 earnings call.

The investor presentation and the financial results are available on the company website and on the stock exchanges. Please note anything said on this call which reflects our outlook for the future or which can be construed as a forward-looking statement must be viewed in conjunction with the risk that the company faces.

This conference call is being recorded and the transcript, along with the audio of the same, will be made available on the website of the company as well as on the exchanges. Please also note that the audio of the conference call is a copyrighted material of Entertainment Network India Limited and it cannot be copied, rebroadcasted or attributed in press or media without specific and written consent of the company.

To give you a brief business update and to take you through the results from the management team, we have Mr. Yatish Mehrishi, Chief Executive Officer and Mr.

Sanjay Ballabh, Chief Financial Officer. I would now request Mr.

Yatish to provide you with a brief update on the quarter. Over to you, sir.

Thanks, Sneha. Good morning, everyone.

On behalf of ENIL, I extend a very warm welcome to all participants joining us for our Q1 FY27 earnings call. We announced our results yesterday and I hope you had a chance to review them.

I will now take this opportunity to walk you through our performance. During the quarter, we recorded domestic revenue of ₹111 crore, marginal degrowth of 1.9% year-on-year.

Performance was affected by the geopolitical conflict and related uncertainties, which led to our event cancellations, curtailed travel activities of artists and consequently lower business volume during the quarter. EBITDA for the quarter grew by four by 42% to ₹8.7 crore.

This was achieved through the successful execution of several strategic cost rationalization measures we have undertaken during the year. Encouraging to note that despite prevailing macro headwinds, the non-digital business improved profitability, delivering EBITDA growth of 7.4% and PAT growth of 85% during the quarter.

Our international operations, though impacted by the West Asia conflict, contributed ₹3 crore in revenue. The company continues to maintain a robust balance sheet with a cash balance of ₹389 crore as of June 30, 2026.

Turning now to the performance of our key segments, let me start with radio. The Radio Mirchi advertising segment delivered reported revenues of ₹62.2 crore on the back of ongoing macroeconomic scenario.

The challenging conditions witnessed in FY26 extended into Q1 FY27, with advertiser demand remaining soft due to the uncertainties. This is affecting not only radio segment, but the overall media industry.

Despite the headwinds, we maintained our leadership position, showing resilience of our business model. Coming to our non-FCT segment, the non-FCT segment stood at ₹17.5 crore, impacted by event cancellations and artist travel disruptions across markets weighed on our business activity.

Moving to our digital business, in this quarter, digital revenues stood at ₹31.1 crore, up 43.3% year-on-year, contributing to 30.2% of our total revenue, up from last year of 23%. This growth was largely powered by Gaana's strong user traction and consumer engagement on the platform.

I'm happy to report that investment in digital business declined to ₹8.3 crore from ₹9.8 crore in the same quarter last year, reflecting the results of our ongoing operational efforts. We have been reiterating that digital business will be the key driver of our growth and Q1 FY27 results were yet another quarter to showcase exactly the same.

With this, I'll hand over the call to the moderator and look forward to your questions. Thank you.

Hello.

Yes, Suresh.

Good morning, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, actually, so many quarters in radio business will suffered from advertising. It is only for West Asia region issues ka reasons?

Or any other issues? Second question, you will factual radio and digital business?

In you go for any other ventures you go for, and the revive the company and go for any other businesses? You tried to any other businesses, sir?

Suresh. Thank you, Suresh.

See, on overall, yes, the West Asia crisis and overall economy situation did have an impact on media. Media, as I've been telling in other earnings calls also, is going through a major transition phase where the subscription numbers or advertising revenues are under pressure where there's a lot of content available, there is media fragmentation happening, and which is leading to pressure on overall the advertising landscape.

It's not just radio, but be it television, be it print, be it outdoor, all forms of vanilla advertising are under pressure. In addition to that, with the geopolitical crisis and uncertainties lead to a much bigger impact.

That's the reason the radio degrowth you're seeing across the board, not just us, but I would say across traditional mediums, there has been a softness in the industry. To your second question, we have three businesses we put as verticals: one is radio, the second is digital, which you rightly said, the third is our event business, which has been growing really quarter-on-quarter every quarter.

This quarter has been marred by a lot of cancellations because of artists couldn't travel. We had to cancel a couple of activities due to the uncertainties and that's the reason we have not be able to do that.

Otherwise, our three major businesses remain radio, events and digital.

Sir. Then, actually, this business verticals all verticals will be some media side.

It is not good for growth. Then other diversifications is any planning, anything?

Suresh, so far, we are concentrated on the media business. With new tech of AI and all, we do delve on that, and we keep experimenting on and it do internal investments on usage of AI.

Largely, our overall sector will remain media.

Only for media? You will go for media?

Sir. Actually, I am the long shareholder in Entertainment Network.

Investor-wise will not grow any companies. Sir, any buyback you can plan?

The cash is available in the company reserves. Any buyback plan you can think?

That's a board discussion. We keep discussing as and when it comes.

I think we'll come back.

You can take feedback, sir.

Yes, Suresh.

This buyback.

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Suresh.

Thank you.

Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the point you highlighted about the event business that there are few cancellations.

Is there a possibility to roll over those business into the quarter or the event got cancelled is a permanent dent kind of thing? I am just asking from a one-off or a bump into the events revenue from the subsequent quarters.

Ronak, what happens is you're right. A couple of times, the few events get cancelled because they are strategic to that quarter.

For us, couple of events have moved to the quarter two. Like there are a couple of international artists concerts we wanted to do, which are happening in quarter two.

Largely, sometimes, it does happen that the events are planned for that month, and if that get cancelled, then you lose the event. Having said that, event business has always been H2 heavy.

HQ1 and Q2 are always subdued. If media is like 45-55 H1-H2, events is almost 35-65, if not more.

That's the way it looks like. We remain very, very positive on our event business, and we believe our quarter two onwards, the business will remain in good shape only.

Understood. Secondly, on the Gaana perspective, we have increased our subscription pack, now what percentage of our subscriber are on that pack and have we seen some dip just because of the increase into the subscription price?

Yeah. Overall, it remains healthy.

As I said, we have always been very prudent about looking at profitable subscribers and not just gun for subscriber growth. The overall thing for us has always been to look at profitable growth.

The way we look at the profitable margin and subscribers is about 70% now for us. There were a little low-end subscribers which we keep churning out and keep a balance of subscriber numbers and profitability.

Okay. Directionally, though not a specific number, how you are likely to see FY27 shaping up both in terms of your radio plus non-FCT business?

On the profitability front, how that trajectory will look like?

We believe this year, the traditional mediums of radio, TV, print will remain subdued, the pure radio advertising. Event business will grow.

Experiential has been growing across the board, and we continue to be bullish about it. To compensate and to work on our radio muted growth or traditional media growth, we have taken certain very, very strong corrective actions on our operational cost models.

You've seen some results in quarter one. It will flow into all quarters over a period of time.

We've just over last one quarter and a little more we have started taking those actions, which will flow into the entire year also. The whole idea is to look at the broadcast model starting afresh and see how we can look at operating cost are really, really efficient about it.

Okay. Can you elaborate on that part because one of your peer also highlighted they have restructured the operating cost model and the numbers are quite visible in their profitability.

Which are the line of items which we are looking in terms of the cost saving and what can be the quantum of the saving which we can expect?

I will not be able to put you the number to it right now, but to give a perspective, yes, there are networking of stations, usage of new tech of AI, usage of new broadcasting tools helps minimizes the cost of broadcasting really, really drastically. That helps a lot, which impacts line items across the cost base.

Radio has always been a fixed cost model, earlier it was difficult, but with new tech available and networking, it helps us to look at line items across cost structures to make it more efficient. You would have seen even in quarter one for us, even with the subdued revenue, the profitability has improved over last year, sir.

As I said, it's just a quarter, we believe over the full year it will be much better.

Understood. On the profitability front, any directional thing which you can highlight compared to FY26 or based on the current run rate?

Generally, Ronak, we don't provide any guidance on this.

Correct.

I will leave that to right now for that.

No issues. That's it from my side.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, sir. I have few questions I would like to ask.

Sir, can you share only Gaana revenue and profitability for this quarter and YoY growth?

Gaana revenues, just give me one sec, are ₹21.4 crore against last year of 17.5, with a growth of almost 19%.

Okay. What was the FCT and non-FCT split for this quarter?

Percentage would be, as I said, digital is about 30%. It's almost equal for us in terms of 45% radio, 30% digital and balance is non-FCT.

Okay. Can you share the details in the inventory utilization?

Inventory utilization has gone down by about 8%, but the price is improved over by almost 5%.

Okay. What was the volume growth that you have achieved in this quarter?

I said the volume utilization has gone down by 8%, ma'am.

Okay. What was the effective rate?

We don't specify the rate, but as I said, the rates have improved by about 5%.

Okay. What was the overall market share?

Market share on volume has been about 26% to 27% is what.

Sir. Thank you.

Hello, sir. You said that the Gaana revenue is about 21 crore.

What is the EBITDA? What is the profitability?

What's the plan in the future? When it comes to Gaana.

Chandramouli, can you just repeat? Your voice was a little feeble.

I couldn't gather everything.

No, no. I'm asking about Gaana.

You said that the quarterly revenue run rate is 21 crore about. What is the EBITDA?

What is the plan for the future, sir? How's it shaping up?

Our revenues on Gaana have gone up by 20%. The losses have reduced by about 14% compared to last year.

Last year, our losses were about ₹9.8 crore. This year, it's about 8.35.

Our endeavor is to make it profitable this year and to get it break even. There are certain headwinds and certain issues which keeps coming on from the market side, which we keep fighting it out, etc.

Right now, the endeavor is to get it break even stage as soon as possible. We've been consistent on reducing our investment on digital quarter-on-quarter.

Hypothetically speaking, assuming that the Gaana break even, what would be the profitability of the other business, sir?

Can you repeat?

No. Hypothetically the question is, assuming that the Gaana break even overall, what would be the profit from the other business?

If you look at our radio margins have always been in the range of 30 35% to 40%. Events have been in the range of 25% to 30% EBITDA margins.

You can look at in those lines as the profitability margin numbers.

You are saying that the Gaana can be EBITDA positive year-end. That means from the 8.3 to make it EBITDA positive, that the top line has to go ₹35-₹40 crore, right?

Am I right? Is my understanding?

It's a it's a mix of both. See, you know what happens is in Gaana because the subscribers are at a different price points, it's not like a telecom structure where you change price for everybody.

Your price keeps changing because you have in the the customer has committed a price. When he turns out to a new price, it improves your top line also.

It's a function of both. The important part is to look at revenue growth.

We have increased our price to 799 and it's a balance what we keep creating. As I said, for our endeavor for us is to make it break even as soon as possible and not gun for unnecessarily subscriber growth which comes at a lower cost or a lower LTV.

Okay. The things are happening as per your plan?

It's happening to plan. There can be couple of quarters here and there because everybody is looking at the same consumer.

Sometimes the CAC goes up, you have to balance it out. As you see in the market today, there are short-form dramas, gaming has stopped, but everybody is trying to acquire the similar customer, where there are 100 million or 150 million Indians who are the main subscriber market.

Or if in music, if you look at, there are 150 million people who stream music. If those are the people everybody's gunning for, sometimes your CAC goes up and that puts pressure on your marketing spends.

You have to keep a balance on it. Maybe sometimes it could be a one quarter here and there, but the endeavor is to keep reducing our investment and make it break even as soon as possible.

That's what we've been achieving quarter-on-quarter to reduce it.

Okay. The earlier person also alluded that you have a cash balance of about ₹390 crore.

Maybe instead of a dividend, maybe you can think of giving a buyback because it is tax-effective now. Maybe at a promoter level also it is at less for you, please.

It's my humble request to you.

No, I take your feedback, Chandramouli. It's a board discussion.

We keep discussing. We also keep evaluating strategic initiatives in

The market cap of the company is only about ₹500 crore right now. Maybe you can consider, please.

Yes, I'll take your feedback.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay. That's all from my end.

Thank you.

Thanks for the follow-up. Sir, my question is on Gaana again.

We have seen some good double-digit sort of subscription CAGR at industry level just because two things. First, the competitor have tweaked in the pricing.

Secondly, just because of the macro headwinds, have we seen some moderation into the industry-level subscriber growth in last few odd months? Secondly, from the competitive pricing perspective, if we see the straddling, how we likely to position ourselves compared to the current pricing?

Okay. See, Ronak, let me answer one by one.

The pricing front, we are we still have a headroom compared to our competitors on an annual pack, but on a monthly pack, we are almost at the similar levels. Almost at similar levels, like we would be at about 10% lower than than competition.

Important point, when you look at the subscription market, we are the only subscription service, the pure subscription service available in the country. There rather other services have free freemium also and a premium.

They are largely freemium, we are only a premium model. Having said that, if you look at If you have looked at certain reports and a lot of labels have also started looking at subscription is the way to go.

If you look at, Amazon Music has relaunched, has also put up price on subscription and and and and looking at a pure subscription service also. Spotify has globally also, two days back, they have also announced in terms of putting restrictions on free model and looking at subscription.

In fact, the biggest initiative has come from Universal as a label where they have recently announced that their new music for 72 hours, first 72 hours will be only available to premium subscribers. The entire industry and and all streaming players believe that for music industry to grow, it is only ways going to be through subscription, which we have been doing for last two years.

We believe on subscription economy only, and that's what we continue to believe. It it is, as I say, I've always been saying, it's a willingness to pay for music rather than ability to pay.

Since it's available free, sometimes Indians are always value-conscious consumers. It takes time to change the behavior.

Over a period of time, if you look at EY, KPMG reports, EY report or a KPMG report, the numbers have been very heartening. They've been growing, and we have also grown our subscriber numbers in a in line with that.

It's it's a slow burn, but but if it has a bright future in terms of moving towards subscription. In the past also, people have paid for music.

It's just that in the middle of last 10 years, music has been available free, and that's the reason people are not putting value to it. As people start putting restrictions on the free tier, people will look into a behavioral change of moving towards music subscription also.

Got it. That's it from my side.

Thanks.

Thank you, Ronak.

Hi, sir. Once again we give the opportunity.

Thank you, sir. Actually, Entertainment Network YouTube channel is available, sir.

Yes.

Sir, you have take programs in generally health awareness, organic food side. Some events they have taken that type of OTT, is a YouTube channel, Insta.

The type of events you can increase the market share. I will just suggest you, sir.

I know a little bit, but I suggest you.

No, thanks. Thank you, Suresh, for the feedback.

To give you a perspective, we do a lot of events on the health side also. We do a lot of marathons across the board, and also on sustainability also, we do a lot of events.

It's not just on entertainment side, but on the health and sustainability side also, we do a lot of events. We almost do 25 to 30 marathons in a year.

We do tree plantation drives and across the boards. A lot of activities we do which are non-entertainment also depending on how the opportunity is like.

Sir. Thank you.

Thank you, Suresh.

Thank you.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to have you all.

We remain committed to driving our profitable growth and creating long-term value for our shareholders. Thank you once again for joining this call.

Have a good day.