Hindi
UFO Moviez posts Rs 265 mn consolidated revenue for Q2FY22
Mumbai: In-cinema advertising platform UFO Moviez on Thursday announced its financial results for the quarter and half year ended on 30 September.
Consolidated revenue stood for at Rs 265 million (Q2FY21 – Rs 128 million), and EBITDA at minus (-) Rs 152 million (Q2FY21 – minus (-) Rs 218 million).
Consolidated revenue for H1FY22 was Rs 546 million (H1FY21 – Rs 306 million) and EBITDA stood at minus (-) Rs 332 million (H1FY21 – minus (-) Rs 450 million).
In the quarter under review, theatres reopened from July in a staggered manner, except for Maharashtra, which resulted in Hindi films delaying their release dates. However, in the South and other regional markets, films were released despite restrictions on seating capacity. This led to a gradual revival in the company’s revenue and a reduction in cash losses.
Maharashtra and Kerala allowed the reopening of theatres beginning on 22 October and 25 October, respectively. Karnataka, Telangana, Rajasthan, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh are operating at 100 per cent occupancy, while most other states are permitted to operate at 50-60 per cent.
“During the quarter, there were no Hindi movie releases as theatres in major markets like Maharashtra were not permitted to reopen. However, regional movies performed well at the box office,” said UFO Moviez joint managing director Kapil Agarwal.
“With the opening of Cinemas in Maharashtra and Kerala, Hindi and Non-Hindi markets are now fully operational. Recently, Sooryavanshi was released on more than 1600 UFO screens and the much-awaited Rajnikanth movie, Annaatthe, distributed by UFO in the Hindi circuit, was released in more than 700 UFO screens in all languages. Despite the occupancy restrictions, both the movies had a blockbuster opening weekend, collecting 100 plus crores each worldwide. This reaffirms the importance of cinemas. Also, the movie pipeline for the next six to eight months is extremely strong. We expect the film exhibition industry to recover at a rapid pace and are confident that UFO’s business and financial performance will be restored very soon,” he added.
Further, the board of directors, in its meeting held on 3 November, approved the preferential allotment of 93,99,933 equity shares aggregating to Rs 96.82 crore to Nepean Focused Investment Fund, a scheme of investment of Nepean Investment Trust II, a category II alternative investment fund registered with Securities and Exchange Board of India at a price of Rs 103.01 per equity share, as per applicable rules and regulations. This preferential issue is subject to necessary approvals.
Hindi
India’s telecom subscribers cross 1.32 billion in February 2026
Broadband base swells past 1.06 billion as Jio and Airtel tighten grip on the market.
MUMBAI: India’s telecom sector is ringing in steady growth once again adding millions of new connections every month while the race for broadband supremacy continues to heat up like a fiercely contested cricket match. According to the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 1 April 2026, the total telephone subscriber base in the country reached 1,321.31 million at the end of February 2026. This marked a net addition of 7.31 million subscribers during the month, translating into a monthly growth rate of 0.56 per cent.
Wireless subscribers (including mobile and Fixed Wireless Access) stood at 1,273.31 million, registering a net addition of 6.97 million and a growth rate of 0.55 per cent. Within this, urban wireless connections grew to 730.75 million (growth 0.70 per cent), while rural wireless subscribers reached 542.56 million (growth 0.35 per cent).
Wireline subscribers, though much smaller in scale, showed slightly faster growth. The total wireline base increased to 47.99 million, with a net addition of 0.34 million and a monthly growth rate of 0.70 per cent. Urban areas continued to dominate wireline connections with a share of 89.41 per cent.
Overall tele-density in India improved to 92.66 per cent. Urban tele-density stood at 150.68 per cent, while rural tele-density edged up to 60.02 per cent.
The broadband subscriber base crossed a significant milestone, reaching 1,059.05 million at the end of February 2026. This reflected a healthy net addition of 6.33 million subscribers and a monthly growth rate of 0.60 per cent from January’s figure of 1,052.72 million.
Segment-wise, mobile wireless access continued to drive the majority of growth with 996.52 million subscribers. Fixed Wireless Access (including 5G FWA) added 16.51 million, while wired broadband stood at 46.02 million.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. maintained its commanding lead with 519.64 million broadband subscribers. Bharti Airtel Ltd. followed with 364.14 million, Vodafone Idea Ltd. with 129.36 million, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. with 28.70 million, and Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd. with 2.38 million.
Together, these top five players command a massive 98.60 per cent share of the total broadband market.
In the wireless (mobile) segment, private operators continued to dominate with 92.59 per cent market share, leaving public sector undertakings (BSNL and MTNL) with just 7.41 per cent.
Out of the total 1,257.29 million wireless (mobile) subscribers, 1,177.60 million were active on the peak Visitor Location Register (VLR) date, representing an impressive 93.66 per cent activity rate. Bharti Airtel led in this metric with 99.42 per cent of its subscribers active.
Meanwhile, 14.47 million subscribers submitted requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in February, indicating healthy competition and customer churn across zones.
While urban areas still lead in absolute numbers, rural connectivity is slowly catching up. Rural wireless tele-density stood at 59.46 per cent, compared with the much higher urban figure of 142.32 per cent.
Fixed Wireless Access using 5G technology also showed promising traction, growing to 11.93 million subscribers. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are the primary players driving this segment.
The data paints a picture of a maturing yet still rapidly expanding telecom ecosystem. With total telephone subscribers now well past the 1.32 billion mark and broadband users comfortably above 1.06 billion, India continues to solidify its position as one of the world’s largest and most dynamic digital markets.
From bustling city streets to remote villages, more Indians are staying connected than ever before proving that when it comes to telecom, the country’s appetite for growth shows no signs of hanging up anytime soon.
