GTPL Hathway Invests Rs 265 Cr on Capital Expenditures in Nine Months FY25

According to Piyush Pankaj, the chief strategy officer of GTPL Hathway, which is backed by Reliance Industries, the company invested Rs 265 crore of the Rs 350 crore targeted annual capital expenditure in its cable TV and broadband businesses during the first nine months of this fiscal year.

Pankaj informed analysts during the company's third-quarter earnings call on January 10 that, of the Rs 265 crore, Rs 160 crore was invested in the cable TV business and Rs 95 crore in the internet business during the period.

"Set-top boxes accounted for the majority of cable TV's capital expenditures. Thus, you might claim that about 90% of the Rs 160 crore is spent on the cable boxes. The rest is on fiber," added Pankaj.

With 8.9 million paying customers, GTPL Hathway is the biggest cable TV operator in India. It has over a million broadband customers as well. Despite an 8% increase in revenue to Rs 2,586 crore, the company's net profit for the nine months ending December 31, 2024, dropped 60% year over year to Rs 38 crore. In 2023, the business said that it would invest Rs 1,400 crore over the next three years, or Rs 450–500 crore a year, equally between its cable TV and broadband operations.

According to Pankaj, the capital expenditure side of the soon-to-be-launch Headend in the Sky (HITS) project was 80% finished. The corporation is waiting for a few last regulatory permissions before launching the HITS service. "By next quarter, the whole project (HITS) will be completed, and we will be ready to launch," he stated.

The ministry of information and broadcasting awarded GTPL Hathway an HITS license in July, and the company intends to invest Rs 100 crore in the project.

In order to draw customers to regions of the nation without cable, particularly in northern India, the business intends to employ HITS, a satellite-based platform that combines the features of cable TV and DTH.

According to Pankaj, the company's entertainment app, GTPL Buzz, which provides cloud gaming, live TV streaming, and international content, has one million users.