Media & Entertainment – Oct-Dec’25 Earnings Preview – Cinemas get Santa goodie; but parks catch cold
Published on 07 Jan 2026
Media: Industry-wide BO collections decreased marginally by 2.1% YoY to ~Rs32.9bn in 3QFY26E. Titles like Dhurandhar, Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Thamma and Tere Ishk Mein aided overall collections for the quarter. Accordingly, we expect PVRINOX IN to report 7.2% YoY growth in footfalls to 40.0mn with a pre-IND AS EBITDA margin of 15.8% in 3QFY26E. As for broadcasting, Z IN’s top-line is likely to be aided by higher syndication revenue & movie distribution business. However, EBITDA margin is likely to be weighed down by higher content cost arising from ILT20 as the tournament got preponed to 3QFY26E.
Entertainment: NAZARA IN’s topline is likely to decline amid deconsolidation of Nodwin but EBITDA margin is set to expand 560bps YoY to 15.4%; given e-sports business was seeding losses. As for IMAGICAA IN, we expect footfalls to remain flat at 0.64mn in this quarter with an EBITDA margin of 35.5%.
Top pick: While Z IN is likely to report subdued performance on account of higher content cost arising from ILT20, EBITDA losses in ZEE5 are likely to narrow further. With launch of new content, improvement in viewership share and re-entry of ZEE Anmol into the FTA category, we expect back-ended recovery in ad-revenues and margins. We maintain BUY with a TP of Rs158 (14x FY27E EPS).
