Good evening, everyone. I would like to welcome the management and thank them for this opportunity.

We have with us today Mr. Anirudhsingh Jadeja, Promoter and Managing Director; Mr.

Piyush Pankaj, Business Head - B2B, CATV and Broadband, and Chief Strategy Officer; and Mr. Saurav Banerjee, Chief Financial Officer.

I shall hand over the call to the management for the opening remarks. Over to you, gentlemen.

Thank you. Welcome to the call of GTPL Hathway Limited to discuss financial performance of the first quarter of FY27.

As the country's largest MSO, we continue to take initiatives to further strengthen our presence across the digital TV and broadband businesses. We appointed Mr.

Vivek Raina as our new Broadband Business CEO to have a focused approach and lead growth in B2B and B2C segments. Both our digital TV and broadband businesses continued to demonstrate resilience and consistent operating performances.

With the launch of GTPL's Infinity, our HITS platform in FY26, and the recent acquisition of the ACT Group's digital television business, we are strengthening our platform for future growth and enhancing our ability to scale efficiently across key markets. The further details of the acquisition will be shared by Piyush Pankaj.

Thank you. Now, I hand over the call to Piyush Pankaj, who will take you through the KPI for digital TV and broadband segment.

Thanks, Mr. Jadeja.

Good evening, everyone. Let me begin with giving you all an overview of the key highlights of this quarter.

GTPL Hathway entered into a business transfer agreement to acquire the digital business of seven ACT Group companies for an aggregate cash consideration of ₹36.23 crore, and which is expected to get completed by 15 September 2026. The transaction is expected to add approximately 6 lakh digital TV subscribers across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Karnataka markets, thereby strengthening our presence in key Southern and Eastern markets, and supporting our strategy of expanding the digital TV business through both organic and inorganic growth.

This acquisition will give us leadership position in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which will help us to trigger the synergic benefit for revenue consolidation and cost optimization. We are really pleased to report that we entered two new strategic markets in Q1 FY27, namely state of Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir.

By entering the Kerala state, we have expanded our presence in all Southern markets. Now the KPIs for our digital TV and broadband business are as follows.

First, digital TV segment: our digital TV subscriber base as on 30th June 2026 stood at 9.60 million. Among the total subscriber base, paying subscribers stood at 8.9 million.

The total business partners count now stands at more than 51,000, and they remain instrumental in fueling our nationwide expansion journey. In the broadband business, active subscriber base at the end of the quarter stood at 1,060 1060k, 1.06 million, adding 10,000 new subscribers on a YoY basis.

The broadband ARPU for quarter F1 FY27 stood at INR 470, increased by INR 5 as compared to Q1 FY26. Average data consumption per month stood at 436 GB per user, a 6% increase YoY.

As we move forward, we remain committed to accelerating our expansion across new states, broadening our total addressable market, and advancing our vision of becoming a truly pan-India digital TV and broadband player. Thank you.

I will now hand over the call to Mr. Saurav Banerjee, CFO, 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 basis, our total income grew by 12% year-on-year and 9% on a quarter-on-quarter basis to INR 1,020 crore.

Subscription revenue saw an increase of 2% sequentially to INR 291 crore. The broadband revenue stood at INR 143 crore and registered a growth of 5% on a yearly basis, and grew marginally by 2% sequentially.

Consolidated EBITDA stood at INR 109 crore with an EBITDA margin of 10.7%. Net profit for Q1 FY27 stood at INR 2.3 crore.

Now looking at the standalone performance for the quarter, our total revenue grew by a healthy 16% YoY and 12% sequentially to INR 693 crore. Subscription revenue saw an increase of 2% QoQ to INR 213 crore.

Standalone EBITDA stood at INR 64.4 crore with an EBITDA margin of 9.3%. Net profit for Q1 FY27 stood at INR 1.9 crore on a standalone basis.

Overall, our consolidated operating EBITDA stood at INR 101 crore in Q1 FY27, registering an operating margin of 22%. I would now request the moderator to open the floor for the Q&A session.

Hi, good evening. Congratulations on the quarter.

My first question

Sorry?

Am I audible now?

Am I audible now?

Yes. Yes, Saizel, please go ahead.

Yes, okay. Hi, congratulations on the quarter firstly.

My question is on the ACT acquisition. As the integration progresses, what would you consider the key milestones we should monitor for the coming months, to evaluate whether this acquisition would be delivering the expected returns?

In ACT integration, you can say that we had around 6 lakh subscriber base, which we are looking forward to integrate. The whole agreement is going to get closed by 15th September 2026.

The full effect of that will start coming in the mid-quarter, Q2, and then the next quarter in Q3, which you will start seeing. You will see that the number of subscribers has to go up by that much, and plus, it will enhance our revenues and it will be accretive to our EBITDA.

Those things you will start seeing it, and in calls also we will give you the figures that how it is contributing to our overall business, this acquisition.

Mostly the benefits will be coming to operating leverage, or through revenue synergies?

The benefits will come on having a market leadership in Andhra and Telangana market, which will give us the synergy benefits as we have presence over there and we are taking over this, we are going to be market leader and that will give us better operating margin in that market.

Okay. One more question.

Broadband homepass has expanded immensely over the last quarter. Although subscriber additions have remained relatively modest, going forward, is your priority to improve utilization of the existing network, or you would be continuing to expand the homepass footprint?

The strategy in broadband is till date we are not increasing our homepasses, and we are going for the extraction of the subscriber base on that, because already, if you see the percentage is at around 17 16% to 17% is the extraction rate right now, which we want to go up to around 19% to 20% on this. Yes, as in my statement we said that we have recruited a new CEO for the broadband business and we will have more focus that how we can expand all over India and increase our business in Gujarat market.

We are going to invest in increasing our homepass also and create more infrastructure for the future business, for expansion of the future business. The focus will be back totally on the broadband business that how we can expand that, and that is one of the main reasons that a CEO has been recruited and put into the place to fuel that growth.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. Good afternoon.

My question was with regards to the financial performance of the company. Despite the revenue growing 12% year-on-year to ₹1,020 crores, the PAT declined sharply to around ₹2.3 crores.

Could you help me understand the key reasons for this divergence between top-line growth and profitability? Which operating factors created the biggest pressure during the quarter?

You are right, the PAT has decreased around ₹8 crore YoY, if you see. This is mainly because of higher depreciation and finance costs.

If you go through the whole financials, you will see that the depreciation and finance cost has gone up by around ₹6 crore. That is because of the capitalization of right-of-use assets related to HITS infrastructure in line with the accounting standards and conservative accounting practice.

The company has taken the full cost and capitalization of HITS, but the cost saving and other operational benefits related to HITS will start flowing in future quarters, which will show positive effect in PAT in coming quarters. If you see the company is maintaining the operational margin and the margin will increase when the full benefit of HITS platform will be materialized.

We have taken all the costs regarding the HITS on the capitalization and other costs, which is on the transponder cost and everything. Still, as the HITS implementation is going on, the benefits of HITS and the saving due to the HITS is still to come into the books.

That's why we are seeing that difference in the PAT. If you see at EBITDA level, it is just ₹3 crore down, but at the PAT level, it is at ₹8 crore down.

Sir. How much of the margin pressure is structural versus one-off?

Can we expect margins to improve during FY27?

The operational margin, which is at 22%, which we have shown, that will go up to 25%. That's will help us in increasing our EBITDA and PAT both, at both the sides.

That helps. Also, the homepass stands at 5.95 million with around 75% FTTH ready, but the overall footprint appears to have remained broadly stable for the past few quarters.

Could you tell me the pace at which GTPL expects to convert this existing footprint into paying broadband subscribers, and what are the key bottlenecks to the accelerating conversion?

We are looking forward that out of this 6 million 5.95 million homepass, we should have 20% to 21% conversion rate, extraction rate. That should be there, which we are trying to achieve.

Plus, now we are going to invest back into the increasing our homepasses. There also, we are expecting that the healthy extraction rate should be 20% to 21%.

That's what we are aiming for, and we're looking forward as we are going to be more aggressive in the market for the broadband.

That helps, sir. My next question was related to the recent acquisition.

Could the management elaborate on the key synergies expected from the acquisition of the seven ACT Group digital TV businesses? Specifically, how should we think about the potential benefits in terms of market expansion, cost efficiencies, and cross-selling opportunities?

See, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market, if I would see, we already have more than a million subs, and adding this 6 lakhs, we are going to cross somewhere around 1.6 1.7 million subs, which is we are going to be the largest player in that market. That is going to help us in expansion also, we are going to have a much, much better synergies in that market.

That will help us in operational synergies and vendor synergies, everything, and that is going to give us more margin in that market. That's the benefit you will start seeing it in the coming quarters as the deal will get closed, that's of 15th September 2026, which we have to close before that, on 15th or before that.

You will start seeing that effect in our P&L also. As I said that we'll keep you informed in every call that how it is progressing and what more benefits we are getting out of this acquisition.

Can you shed more light on what contribution are we expecting on revenue and EBITDA from this acquisition?

Right now, we don't want to give it. First, we let the integration happens and let this deal get closed as this is getting closed by 15th September, as we announced in public.

Before that, we don't want to give any figures and all. Yes, in the next call, you will get all the figures, and you will start getting it in the result also.

Okay.

One last question. What is the planned CapEx for FY27 across broadband expansion, FTTH conversion, HITS infrastructure, and integration of acquired assets?

That's

right now we have kept it around ₹400 crore for this financial year, the CapEx, where it is going to be around 50% for broadband and 50% for digital Cable.

Okay. That helps, sir.

Thank you very much. Wish you all the best.

Thank you.

Hello. Am I audible?

You are. Please go ahead.

All right,

yeah. Sir, my first question was, how do you encourage upsell to the higher tiers in cable TV and broadband?

Come again. Come again, sorry.

Your voice was cracking in the middle. Hello.

Sir, yeah, my question was, how do you encourage upsell to higher tiers in cable TV and broadband?

Upsell. You're talking about upsell?

Upsell, yeah. Am I audible?

Combo.

Actually, we are trying a pilot projects in few cities regarding this combo that I think you're referring to, regarding the cable TV and broadband. Far, there is a good sign obviously because, eventually, the idea is to bring them together and increase the broadband subscribers with the kind of number of cable TV we have.

I cannot exactly tell you the plan, but it's so far looking as a good sign.

We have started the combo product already. It is in our stable and that is doing very good.

That combo product is more of cable plus broadband plus other services, games and everything. That's a very promising product, and which we are upselling to both our cable and broadband subscribers and bringing them.

That is increasing our stickiness and, plus, this is increasing our revenues on that side.

Okay. Sir, in a scenario of stronger competition on price, what are the levers you would use to protect margins and market share in cable TV and broadband?

See,

we are number one digital TV provider right now as you see, and we are expanding in different states. Already we are in 26 states and five UTs, and only two states are left and I think three UTs are left.

That's why we have gone for headend-in-the-sky technology, where we have the signal at every nook and corner of the country now. We are looking forward that how we can expand into every districts of India going forward.

It's more of like if you are in Aurangabad, then you're not only in the city, you're in the whole district, you're in the whole villages and everything which is covered. As you know that India around 350 million households are there, only 210 million households are TV households.

Still, there is a long, long way for India to go. Same in the broadband, if we talk about, 300 million households in India, and only somewhere around 50 million households are in the broadband and the FTTH.

Still, long, long way to go, and here we have to create the infrastructure, which is future-ready to expand your business and cater to the need of the customers. That's what we are doing, and we're hopeful that this strategy will work.

Sir, got it. Sir, how is the HITS infrastructure operationalization panning out currently, if you could share some?

It's

very good. Already in the headend-in-the-sky, we have seen that around 2.5 million existing subscribers has been converted into headend-in-the-sky platform, and around 200k new subscribers has come into the platform.

The bandwidth saving has already come into the effect of around ₹4 crore in the first quarter. We're looking forward that it will increase with the time.

HITS is, I would say, successful. We have started the whole thing somewhere in the February end, March start.

In the last four months, already more than 2.5, almost close to 2.7 million subscriber base are there in this platform. Yes, we are looking forward that in the coming quarters, more savings, more operational benefit, and more penetration in the new markets.

New markets means not in the state, I'm talking about the districts now. That's will help us in the business and the whole side.

That is very helpful.

Roughly when can we expect full benefits from like to

You will start seeing it somewhere in the end of Q3 and start of Q4, the whole benefits of headend-in-the-sky, which will come into the effect. This year, you will see that somewhere around 40% to 50% benefit has come, because over the period we are expanding, doing the things, and from the next financial year, it will be 100%.

Sir. Perfect.

Sir, how's the traction on Bharat TV? Like any metrics in terms of downloads, daily, monthly active users, digital subscription revenues, yeah, hours of content watched that you would like to throw on?

Already given that data consumption is increasing the platform. Already it has reached to around 436 GB per user, that way.

Per user per month, and total 436 GB per month. That is increasing and that is showing that the more consumption is happening and the consumption is happening in all type of things.

I don't want to go to specific platforms and all in this call. Yes, overall, the consumption is increasing every months for us in the broadband business.

That's great. All right, got it.

Sir, in the broadband, ARPU has increased ₹470 per month.

That's right. ARPU has increased from ₹465 to ₹470, and that is mainly because of people are shifting from lower packages to higher-speed packages.

Sir. Got it.

How sustainable would be this ARPU trajectory over the few quarters?

It will be.

It will remain constant.

It will remain somewhere around ₹470 for right now.

Okay. Sir.

Sir, the digital TV revenue has declined year-on-year, while active and paying subscribers remain stable. Is the pressure mainly due to lower realization, channel mix, discounts, or competitive pricing?

No, it is more of, as I have given that in the earlier calls also, the churn is there, and you are entering into new markets where the ARPU is a bit lower than your established markets. Because of the change in the ARPU complex, your revenue is showing a bit dip.

That will come back as we go more aggressive on the expansion, as HITS platform is already been launched, and we are going to be very aggressive like we are doing the acquisitions right now, and we'll do more acquisitions and more aggressive expansion in the market.

Sir. Got it, sir.

Sir, lastly, the average data consumption has increased to 436 GB per month per user. Is the higher usage translating into upgrade to higher speed plans, or is it mainly increasing network cost, without proportional ARPU upside?

No, it is both. People are shifting to higher thing and the utilization is also getting increased.

Sir. Got it, sir.

Thank you so much. All the best, sir.

Thank you. Thanks, Dhara.

Good evening. Am I audible?

Pahel, please go ahead.

Yes, sir. I had a couple of questions.

Starting with, we have entered two new markets this quarter, Jammu, Kashmir, and Kerala, if I'm not wrong. What strategic rationale drove GTPL's entry there?

Could it be cable TV expansion, broadband opportunity, or cross-selling potential?

We have started expanding. First, the entry is at the digital TV, and it is through the headend-in-the-sky in this two markets.

As you said that these are the two new markets which we have not earlier there. We wanted to have the presence in those markets.

The opportunity for broadband is very high in this two markets both, and we have got a lot of inquiries in that. Soon we are going to launch the broadband in this two markets also.

These are you can say lucrative markets as J&K and Kerala, both are lucrative markets. We look forward for a good outcome and good revenue and margin over there.

Sir, got it. What is the current addressable subscriber base in these two markets?

What subscriber addition target does management expect over the next, let's say, 12 to 18 months?

See, targetable if we talk about the total TV households in Kerala market, that is somewhere around 7 million is there, 6.5 to 7 million subscriber base is there, and it is spread over DTH and cable operations. We already have around 75k to 80k sub base over there, and we are looking forward that we are going to continue and grab more market over there, as the potential is there.

J&K also, the addressable market is somewhere around 5 million, 4 4.5 to 5 million. We look forward that we will become a major player in the J&K also.

Sir, got it. My next question was, what upfront investments are required in these markets, in the terms of network, LCO partnerships, set-top boxes, marketing, and customer acquisition?

We entered in inorganic and organic in the both way in this market, and the investment, you can say, it's hard to say what is the investment, because we have to see with the return and all. STBs, as you see, it is the STBs we have to give it for every subscriber base.

It all depends the investment based on whatever subscriber base you are going to achieve that. It's based on the per subscriber base.

All other cost, the fixed cost and all are very less when you are doing it in the digital TV side. Yes, when we are going to start the broadband, we have to do some fixed cost investments and all, which we will do in future.

Sir. My next question was regarding ARPU.

How should we think about ARPU and EBITDA margins in these new markets versus GTPL's existing core markets?

As you enter into the new markets, you have to give some discounts and all. That's why in the beginning you want to achieve to a scale where you can sustain the business and you can have good margin on that.

That takes in any market, the cable business is from 6 to 12 months, and after that, you will start making the money in those markets. We are looking forward to that, and till that time, some investment will be made, you can say.

Then you will start seeing the returns in those market on the ROA or ROI basis.

Okay. Sir.

Are these markets expected to be break-even from day one through maybe existing local partnerships, or will there be an initial gestation period before profitability improves?

That's what I said that to make a market positive in cable business, it takes 6 to 12 months. There is going to be a gestation period of 6 to 12 months to make the business positive in that market.

Sir. My last question.

What is the competitive intensity in these markets from DTH, local cable operators, Jio Airtel broadband, and AirFiber-like offerings, and what will be GTPL's differentiation?

See, in any market you will see that competition is like this only. As I said that the whole addressable market is somewhere around 6.5 to 7 million in Kerala and 4 to 5 million and 4 4.5 to 5 million in J&K.

It's a large market and we have to make the strategies that how we can grab more and more market of that, so that we can establish ourselves and make the business as a very good margin in those. That is going to happen.

Competition is there all over India, we are doing the competition, it's not a problem.

Sir. Thank you so much, and all the very best for the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Am I audible?

Yeah. Vivek.

Yeah. Sir, the GTPL Infinity HITS has been launched and the management mentioned encouraging traction.

Can you share early adoption metrics, target consumer segments, and the expected monetization timeline for the same?

It's a long-term platform, Vivek. It's more of once you start giving because it's a fixed cost.

Transponders cost are fixed. You can serve to 1 million also and 50 million also in this platform.

As the number of subs grow, your operational margin increases in this platform. It's not that it's a variable like in CATV that wherever we have to go, you have to go with the P2P or through fiber and all, which is variable cost, and the cost grows with the number of subs.

Here, the cost are fixed, and as you are increasing the number of subs, your operational margins are increasing. That's why we are looking forward to that.

It's not that as fast as we can continue growing our subs in HITS platform, it will give us more margins and the operational margin will increase. That's what we are looking forward, being a all-India player, and still we want to grow the digital TV in India having a lot of potential on that side.

We are looking forward that we will expand and make more and more margins through this platform.

Okay. Sir.

Sir, just a follow-up on that. What kind of cost savings do you expect from this GTPL Infinity versus the traditional headend model, especially on signal distribution, maintenance, and the network operations?

I'll just give you example that if I have to go for a traditional CATV, then I have to take a P2P or fiber to reach that place. You talking about your Chhindwara.

Chhindwara is one place in Madhya Pradesh. If I have to reach there, I have to take the point-to-point fiber from providers, telco providers or other providers, and we have to give the cost, variable cost on that.

Everyday I will see that the cost is somewhere around ₹10 lakh per month. On ₹10 lakh, if you divide it by 12, it is like ₹80,000.

On ₹80,000, if you are serving 5,000 customer per month, it's like ₹20 is what your cost is on ₹80,000. Your ₹20 is going just for the delivery cost here.

Same, if you are just serving 1,000 customers, it's ₹80 is delivery cost for one subscriber. You are getting from the subscriber ₹125, ₹130 as ARPU plus tax, whatever.

Your distribution cost is just ₹80. It's not a feasible to do the business on that basis.

You can't go for a sub base less than 5,000 on that connection. That's why you have to leave a lot of markets.

You can't go into the rural markets, because there you will find that there is a village of 500 houses, 100 houses, 1,000 houses, and you can't serve them, because it's not financially feasible. Through headend-in-the-sky, you are reaching everywhere and you have the fixed cost.

You can serve anyone. You can go and serve for a 100-house village, 50-house village, 200-house villages also.

Plus, you can serve the whole city also, it's not a problem. There the restrictions that because of the financial feasibility on restrictions of subscriber base on how you can go or how you can serve is gone.

Now you can expand freely. Wherever you want to go, you can go and you can add the subscriber base.

That's why still the rural market has lesser TV and still 140 to 150 million households has no TVs, because people can't reach over there. If DTH can reach, but they're very costly and you have to go for that cost, which is not affordable for rural markets.

All those things are there. That's give us an edge that how you want to do, what strategy you can make.

If you are on satellite, then you have the market open for you.

Sir. Sir, the average data consumption has increased to 436 GB per user per month.

Is a higher usage translation into upgrades to higher-speed plans, or is it mainly increasing the network cost without proportional ARPU upside?

No, see higher GB doesn't means that the cost is increasing, because you are maintaining the cost through optimization of your network and optimization of usage of bandwidth and all. That doesn't translate into higher bandwidth cost and all.

Yes, if usages are increasing, then that is encouraging my customer to go into higher brackets. That's why you are seeing that if you take our ARPU around 2 years or 3 years back, it was at around ₹400, ₹410, ₹420.

That has come up to ₹470 in right now. That is mainly because of that lower bracket subscribers are going for the higher bandwidth and higher-speed packages.

That is the case. You don't translate this into increase in the bandwidth, because you maintain the bandwidth cost through optimizations of your network and all.

It's a healthy sign for the business that your consumption are increasing.

Okay. Got it, sir.

Got it. That really helps.

Thank you, sir, and all the best.

Thanks.

Thank you so much for the opportunity. I wanted to know that how is the industry managing rising content acquisition cost, and what strategies is GTPL adopting?

Content increase, that is happening every year or every second year, as and we are managing through our partners, I will say. Broadcasters are our partners.

We are managing through negotiating with them, while absorbing the cost somewhere at some point of time in the back. We have increased our price also on the ground.

Yes, somehow we are together, we are sitting and doing the negotiations with our partners, with the broadcasters, and we are seeing that no one should lose even our subscribers and our partners, the LCOs and all. If it happens, then we both absorb some of the cost on that basis as a partner.

We move forward. That is the way it is.

It's more of the negotiation. Yes, we being the largest MSO, yes, we have which we utilize and we have that better and I will say that our partners, which are the broadcasters, are helpful in this, where we sit together and take the course that how we should go ahead, take care of our subscriber base and our network partners and all.

Sir. Understood.

That's it from my side. Thank you so much, sir.

Thanks.

Thanks a lot for taking your time for attending the Q1 FY27 earnings calls for GTPL Hathway Limited. We look forward to interact with you next quarter.

Have a good evening, and thank you once again.