Cable TV
Discovery Travel & Living premieres reality show ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ from 15 May
MUMBAI: Taking the Theme Week series forward from 15-24 May, niche channel Discovery Travel & Living premieres India’s first cookery and chef’s life based reality programme Hell’s Kitchen. Host Gordon Ramsay’s name is synonymous with outstanding fine dining, apart from being known as the most the foulest-mouthed chef in Britain.
With Hell’s Kitchen, Discovery Travel & Living brings an entertaining reality series like no other. Watch the Michelin starred chef who gives new meaning to the word rude and gives a whole new dictionary of new and original insults for all who appear on the show. The series will air from 15 – 19 May at 9 pm.
Footballer turned chef Ramsay’s legendary temper precedes him and has made him a favourite with viewers abroad.
For Ramsay, failure is not an option. In this series of Hell’s Kitchen, twelve aspiring chefs compete to impress Gordon Ramsay as he works to open a world-class restaurant and discover the next culinary star who will get to own his or her dream restaurant.
Discovery Networks India vice president – Lifestyle Aditya Tripathi said, “Hell’s Kitchen is filled with a variety of emotions making the programme highly entertaining. Every participant has to display real nerve, mental toughness and great culinary skills to win the restaurant.”
In Hell’s Kitchen, Ramsay is often compared to American Idol host Simon Cowell, but Ramsay actually makes Simon Cowell look very meek. Ramsay is rude and crude not only to his employees and participants but also to his customers.
The participants have varying culinary experience but they all have a passion for food and the ambition to open their own restaurant in common. In the process of achieving perfection, Gordon unleashes on his subjects the utmost degree of battering and pressure.
One has to be as determined and ready to risk their sanity before subjecting themselves to even attempt to cook with Ramsay breathing down their neck. Gordon Ramsay’s serves up helpings of terror, tears, tantrums and triumphs as cameras follow the competing chefs to reveal who will survive the heat of Hell’s Kitchen.
Examples of Gordon’s wrath that makes the programme unique, captivating and entertaining, including rewards & appalling punishments:
>Ramsay passed the two teams to his maitre d’ for a lesson in how to properly set a dining table. The teams then had to replicate a sample table containing over 90 items within a five minute time period. The winning team received an afternoon of spa treatments, while the losing team had to clean and polish all the glass and silverware and set all 100 tables in the restaurant.
>Ramsay gave the contestants 15-minutes to create an original dish out of a tray of 15 different leftovers from the previous evening’s service.
Ramsay became an OBE for services to the hospitality industry in Her Majesty’s New Year’s honours list for 2006. The remaining five episodes of Hell’s Kitchen will air every Monday, from 22 May till 19 June at 10 pm.
Cable TV
Den Networks Q3 profit steady despite revenue pressure
MUMBAI: When margins wobble, liquidity talks and in Q3 FY25-26, cash did most of the talking. Den Networks Limited closed the December quarter with consolidated revenue of Rs.251 crore, marginally higher than the previous quarter but down 4 per cent year-on-year, even as profitability stayed resilient on the back of strong cash reserves and disciplined cost control.
Subscription income softened to Rs.98 crore, slipping 3 per cent sequentially and 14 per cent from last year, while placement and marketing income offered some cheer, rising 15 per cent quarter-on-quarter to Rs.148 crore. Total costs climbed faster than revenue, up 7 per cent QoQ to Rs.238 crore, driven largely by higher content costs and operating expenses. As a result, EBITDA dropped sharply to Rs.13 crore from Rs.19 crore in Q2 and Rs.28 crore a year ago, pulling margins down to 5 per cent.
Yet, the bottom line refused to blink. Profit after tax stood at Rs.40 crore, up 15 per cent sequentially and only marginally lower than last year’s Rs.42 crore. A healthy Rs.57 crore in other income helped cushion operating pressure, keeping profit before tax at Rs.48 crore, broadly stable quarter-on-quarter despite the tougher cost environment.
The real headline-grabber, however, sits on the balance sheet. The company remains debt-free, with cash and cash equivalents swelling to Rs.3,279 crore as of December 31, 2025. Net worth rose to Rs.3,748 crore, while online collections accounted for 97 per cent of total receipts, underscoring strong cash discipline across operations, including subsidiaries.
In short, while Q3 showed signs of operating strain, the financial backbone remains solid. With zero gross debt, steady profits and a formidable cash war chest, the company enters the next quarter with flexibility firmly on its side proving that in uncertain markets, balance sheet strength can be the best growth strategy.








