Hindustan Media Ventures: FY26 Cleanup, Print Still Works

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1. At a Glance

The headline: revenue stayed flat, but profitability climbed. FY26 consolidated revenue was ₹740 Cr (essentially flat against ₹733 Cr in FY25). Net profit swung to ₹49 Cr from ₹78 Cr—a 37% decline. But strip out the dead weight. Discontinued operations (OTTplay’s wind-down) cost ₹92 Cr in losses. Continuing operations—the newspaper business—turned in ₹141 Cr net profit, +8% from FY25’s ₹130 Cr.

The drama: management made two big structural calls. OTTplay (the in-house streaming play that burned money since launch) got discontinued effective March 31, 2026. Radio footprint got pruned—six loss-making frequencies surrendered, now claimed to be “all profitable.” Result: a company narrower than it was, but claiming higher intent.

The market framing: the stock priced at ₹84.9 (prices referenced are not live) sits at 4.03x FY26 EPS of ₹6.61. The peer median P/E is 8.82x. The tension: low multiple, high uncertainty.

2. Introduction

Hindustan Media Ventures is the Hindi edition. HMVL publishes Hindustan, the third-largest daily newspaper in India (17 lakh copies per day as of latest audit data). It sits under HT Media (74.4% ownership), which itself is under Hindustan Times Limited, a KK Birla subsidiary.

The group structure matters. On the June 2026 concall, management spoke of a “deliberate and value-accretive reset”—financial speak for shutdown. OTTplay, the loss-making OTT platform launched via HT Labs around 2020, was costing the group ₹95–96 Cr per year in combined losses and operating bleed. New Labour Codes kicking in November 2025 added a one-time hit of ₹1,609 Lakhs to gratuity and leave obligations across the group. The board, on May 28, approved the wind-down and disclosed it was non-divisive—existing subscriptions sold up to March 31 will be serviced for 1–6 months; after that, nothing. No “residual value” to monetise.

Radio is smaller. Q4 FY26 operating loss was ₹7 Cr; FY26 full-year loss was ₹22 Cr. Management surrendered six frequencies and now claims the remaining 16 stations are profitable. Given sector-wide weakness (management flagged “Radio as a sector is under a lot of pressure”), this is a triage move, not a turnaround.

Print is the core. Nine-month FY26 print segment EBITDA was ₹208 Cr, margin 14%—up from 5% in the prior year. Ad revenue grew 8% year-on-year in FY26; circulation was flat. Management explicitly stated: “the lever for growth is primarily yields, volumes have been by and large flat.”

3. Business Model: WTF Do They Even Do?

HMVL publishes Hindustan, a Hindi daily covering news, politics, business, entertainment, sports. Circulation: 17 lakh copies per day. Markets: Uttar Pradesh (stronghold), Uttarakhand (No. 1), Delhi NCR, Bihar (No. 1), Jharkhand. Printing: own facilities, franchise arrangements, outsourced partners. Distribution: wholesale and direct circulation model.

FY26 revenue mix (from data sheet): roughly 60% ad revenue, ~23% from newsprint and publication sales, ~7% other. Ad revenue grew (Q4 FY26 print ad revenue: ₹313 Cr, +10% YoY). Circulation revenue stuck at ₹51 Cr in Q4 (+4% YoY), but that’s copies, not pricing—management acknowledged “short-term trade-offs for long-term gain” on copy share. Circulation realizations (price per copy) were “broadly flat.”

The portfolio beyond print used to include OTTplay (streaming), Radio (22 frequencies, 15 cities), and digital assets like Shine (job site) and Mosaic (likely a content/digital arm). OTTplay is gone. Radio is bleeding. Digital continues to lose money. For FY26, continuing operations (i.e., print-led) drove the financials; discontinued operations (primarily OTTplay) absorbed the losses.

The economics: a newsprint-bound business in a shifting market. Management warned on the concall about “rising newsprint costs, amplified by a weakening rupee” amid “supply chain disruptions, trade policy uncertainty and geopolitical volatility.” On the positive side: no raw-material commodity shock yet (supply stable), and the core ad yield is responding to pricing power. The downside: if newsprint inflation hits or rupee weakens further, margins compress unless ad yield rises faster.

4. Financials Overview

Figures are consolidated, in ₹ crore, covering continuing and discontinued operations.

Quarterly deep dive (Q4 & FY26 from audited results):

Q4 FY26 revenue: ₹215.53 Cr (+18.7% YoY from ₹181.61 Cr). Net profit: ₹27.48 Cr (−39.5% YoY from ₹45.40 Cr). The profit decline reflects discontinued operations (OTTplay loss of ₹40 Cr) and exceptional labour-code charges.

From the concall, management stated: “Q4FY26: Revenue INR 558 cr (−2% YoY); EBITDA INR 131 cr (+5%) with margin 23% (+100 bps); PAT INR 96 cr with PAT margin 17%.” This is for the HT Group (HTML + HMVL consolidated). HMVL’s standalone continuing-ops revenue for Q4 was ₹215 Cr, with continuing-ops PAT of ₹62 Cr. Discontinued OTTplay drove the delta.

FY26 full year: Revenue ₹739.64 Cr (flat YoY). Reported net profit ₹48.69 Cr (−37% from