04-08-2025
HMVL's profit, revenue surge in June quarter
Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd (HMVL), the publisher of Hindustan and the operator of digital platform OTTPlay, saw its profit after tax for the June quarter surge to ₹ 10.24 crore from ₹ 52 lakh a year earlier.
Revenue from operations rose to ₹ 182.99 crore from ₹ 162.18 crore in the year-ago first quarter, HMVL said in a regulatory filing on Monday. Total expenses in the first quarter were higher at ₹ 197.94 crore versus ₹ 188.55 crore in the year-ago period.
Revenue from printing and publishing of newspapers and periodicals increased to ₹ 163.35 crore from ₹ 154.35 crore a year earlier.
HMVL also said it has approved an investment of up to ₹ 20.01 crore in the equity shares or convertible equity-linked instrument (compulsory convertible preference shares) of A&A Dukaan Financial Services Pvt Ltd, the parent company of financial marketplace BankBazaar.
In 2022, OTTPlay, a recommendation and content discovery platform for streaming services, launched by HT Labs, turned into a streaming service featuring content from video-streaming platforms.
With the launch of OTTPlay Premium, the service now hosts multiple Indian and international video streaming services, allowing subscribers to choose from language-based or thematic subscription bundles.
OTTPlay has onboarded SonyLIV, ZEE5, Lionsgate Play, Sun NXT, ShemarooMe, Curiosity Stream, ShortsTV, and DocuBay streaming services, besides international brands Hallmark Movies Now, DUST, FUSE+ and Tastemade+.
Although telecom operators also offer video streaming platforms as a bundled service, aggregators such as OTTPlay, Amazon Prime Video, Tata Play, and Airtel XStream Premium widen the reach and subscriber base of platforms that may not be investing aggressively in distribution and marketing.
HT Labs is the innovation platform of HT Media, which is also the publisher of Mint and The Hindustan Times. HMVL, a subsidiary of HT Media, also publishes Nandan (a children's magazine), and Kadambini (a socio-cultural magazine).
