ITV

Tag: Linear television

  • Hathway tunes up profits as broadband beams bright, but cable remains a drag

    Hathway tunes up profits as broadband beams bright, but cable remains a drag

    MUMBAI: Hathway Cable and Datacom has wrapped FY25 with a cautiously upbeat tune, posting a consolidated profit of Rs 92.5 crore—a modest dip from Rs 99.3 crore in FY24. But if you zoom into the latest quarter, Q4 was anything but quiet.

    Revenue for the fourth quarter stood at Rs 513.2 crore, up four per cent from Rs 493.4 crore a year ago. Total income rose to Rs 546.6 crore in Q4 FY25, compared to Rs 533.6 crore in Q4 FY24. Net profit came in flat at Rs 34.8 crore, nearly mirroring last year’s Rs 34.6 crore.

    But the real tempo change came in the mix: other income more than doubled to Rs 33.4 crore from Rs 16 crore last quarter, while expenses remained tightly controlled, nudging up just three per cent year-on-year. EPS for the quarter held at Rs 0.20.

    Segment-wise, broadband held its line with Rs 149 crore in revenue, while cable TV brought in Rs 346 crore, both marginally higher year-on-year. Yet cable continued its loss-making streak, clocking a Q4 segment loss of Rs 12.4 crore. Broadband barely eked out a Q4 profit at Rs 0.9 crore.

    Total consolidated income for FY25 hit Rs 2,146 crore, inching up from Rs 2,119 crore in FY24. Broadband revenue came in at Rs 602 crore, down slightly from Rs 623 crore. Cable TV, however, crept up to Rs 1,372 crore from Rs 1,349 crore.

    The broadband division’s yearly profit fell to Rs 9.9 crore from Rs 31.9 crore. Cable TV slumped deeper, posting a Rs 61.5 crore loss, widening from Rs 47 crore in FY24.

    The surprise chartbuster? Hathway’s securities trading segment, which ballooned to Rs 85.5 crore from a humble Rs 8.9 crore. Other income also stayed generous at Rs 106.7 crore. These non-core wins helped keep overall profitability in the black.

    Total assets rose to Rs 5,121 crore from Rs 4,963 crore, while equity expanded to Rs 4,384 crore. Borrowings and lease liabilities slimmed down, giving the balance sheet a cleaner look.

    However, a lingering cloud remains: a Rs 3,201 crore demand from the Department of Telecommunications for unpaid licence fees. The company, backed by legal advice, continues to contest the demand and has made no provision.

    With cable still bleeding, broadband levelling off, and securities surprisingly saving the day, Hathway’s FY25 tune is part resilience, part remix. Whether the beat goes on in FY26 depends on plugging operational leaks and finding new hits in its digital playbook

  • Verizon acquires upLynk assets and operations

    Verizon acquires upLynk assets and operations

    MUMBAI: Verizon Digital Media Services has acquired the assets and operations of upLynk, a technology and television cloud company. The move is a part of Verizon’s expansion plans to efficiently and quickly deliver live events, linear television and video on demand.

     

    upLynk simplifies the complex issues content owners face by streamlining the process of uploading and encoding ‘TV Everywhere’ for live, linear and video on-demand content. By using a single adaptive video format across all devices, upLynk simplifies encoding, storage, playback, ad insertion and analytics to eliminate complexity and enable more agile video workflows.

     

    “As the experience of watching broadcast television changes and the media marketplace shifts, the addition of upLynk’s unique capabilities allows Verizon Digital Media Services to better meet our customers where and how they want to deliver video,” said Verizon Digital Media Services president Bob Toohey. “Simply put, this acquisition provides intelligent, scalable and more flexible ways of streaming video for our customers,” he added.

     

    “Joining forces with Verizon is a turning point for upLynk, and we see incredible opportunity to deliver superior video solutions that streamline the complex challenges that content owners face. We look forward to even greater successes in the ‘TV Everywhere’ market,” informed upLynk chief executive officer Ralf Jacob.
    Based on its integration with national broadcast infrastructures as well as its advanced approach to over-the-top broadcast cloud distribution, upLynk delivers multi-device and cross-platform premium content to complement Verizon’s broad-based end-to-end solutions.

     

    With this acquisition of upLynk’s assets and operations, digital media services customers can take advantage of increased speed to market, simplified workflows and access to a highly efficient and data-rich broadcast cloud technology that leverages Verizon’s video platform and global network.