HMVL reports ₹45.40 crore Q4 profit amid strong digital growth

Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd (HMVL), the publisher of Hindustan and the operator of digital platform OTTPlay, reported a profit after tax of ₹45.40 crore in the quarter ended March, up from ₹10.74 crore a year earlier.

Revenue from operations rose to ₹201.25 crore from ₹188.05 crore last year, HMVL said in a regulatory filing on Monday. 

Total expenses in the fourth quarter were lower at ₹208.58 crore versus ₹219.51 crore in the year-ago period.

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Revenue from printing and publishing of newspapers and periodicals was marginally lower at ₹180.59 crore compared with ₹181.47 crore a year earlier, the filing said.

Digital segment revenue surged threefold year-on-year to ₹19.64 crore from ₹5.84 crore in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal.

HMVL said its board has approved investments of up to ₹7.71 crore in electric mobility player VIR Mobility Pvt. Ltd by subscribing to equity shares or convertible equity-linked instruments. 

“The investment is being made in the fast-growing target entity for the purpose of capital return in future with an aim to leverage media assets owned by the company,” the filing said.

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VIR Mobility currently has three versions of e-bikes in its portfolio priced between ₹35,000 and ₹55,000, it added.

In 2022, OTTPlay, the recommendation and content discovery platform for streaming services, launched by HT Labs, turned into a streaming service featuring content from a range of OTT platforms.

With the launch of OTTplay Premium, the service now hosts multiple Indian and international video streaming services. Subscribers are now able to choose from language-based or thematic subscription bundles. The platform has onboarded SonyLIV, ZEE5, Lionsgate Play, Sun NXT, ShemarooMe, Curiosity Stream, ShortsTV and DocuBay streaming services, besides four international brands such as Hallmark Movies Now, DUST, FUSE+ and Tastemade+, which were so far unavailable in India.

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HT Labs is the innovation platform of HT Media, which is also the publisher of Mint.

Apart from Hindustan, HMVL also publishes Nandan (a children’s magazine), and Kadambini (a socio-cultural magazine).

Even though telecom operators also offer OTT video platforms as a bundled service, the arrival of aggregators such as OTTPlay, Prime Video Channels, Tata Play and Airtel XStream Premium bodes well for the reach and subscriber base of platforms that may not be investing aggressively in distribution and marketing.

Hindustan Media Ventures is a subsidiary of HT Media Ltd, which publishes Mint and The Hindustan Times.