GECs
Shemaroo shuts Comedy and Bhakti TV channels amid ad revenue pressure
The exits follow Shemaroo Umang’s closure as subdued advertising weighs on FTA television and digital revenue remains under pressure
MUMBAI: The laughter has stopped and the devotional bells have fallen silent on two of Shemaroo Entertainment’s television channels. The company has discontinued Shemaroo Comedy and Shemaroo Bhakti, marking another retreat from its linear television portfolio as subdued advertising demand continues to weigh on the economics of free-to-air (FTA) broadcasting.
The closures follow the shutdown of Shemaroo Umang in July 2026. In August, the company secured permission from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to uplink and downlink Mango TV, a new Hindi television channel, signalling a shift in its channel portfolio.
FTA channels can reach viewers without charging a subscription fee, including audiences across Hindi-speaking markets and on DD Free Dish. But while the audience does not pay to watch, the broadcaster still has to pay for content, distribution and operations. Advertising revenue must cover those costs, and reach alone cannot guarantee profitability.
During its Q1 FY27 earnings call on 24 July, Shemaroo management said its FTA television business depended entirely on advertising. Chief operating officer Arghya Chakravarty noted that advertising had remained subdued for an extended period, leaving monetisation on some channels below the level needed to achieve EBITDA breakeven.
Management said it was keeping investment in traditional television prudent and controlled, with spending on new initiatives pared back significantly.
The closures are notable given the channels’ substantial digital footprints. According to third-party channel analytics platform Social Blade, Shemaroo Comedy has approximately 22.6 million YouTube subscribers and 8.27 billion lifetime views. Shemaroo Bhakti has around 13.6 million subscribers and 3.22 billion lifetime views, according to vidIQ.
Together, the channels account for approximately 36.2 million subscribers and 11.5 billion lifetime views on YouTube. These figures reflect their digital presence, not unique viewers, current monthly reach or revenue.
Shemaroo Comedy draws on Bollywood comedy films and scenes, while Shemaroo Bhakti offers devotional music and spiritual programming. Their digital audiences provide potential avenues for monetising content beyond linear television, although standalone revenue and profitability figures for either channel are not publicly available in the sources reviewed.
Shemaroo’s Q1 FY27 performance offers further context for the pressure on its traditional media business. The company reported traditional media revenue of around Rs 76 crore, up 5 per cent year on year. Digital media revenue, however, declined 17 per cent to Rs 56 crore.
Overall revenue from operations fell 6 per cent to around Rs 132 crore.
Meanwhile, the company has secured broadcast permission for Mango TV. The MIB’s Broadcast Seva portal listed it as a Hindi-language, non-news service with permission to uplink and downlink via the GSAT-30 satellite.
Shemaroo Entertainment is listed on the stock exchanges under the ticker SHEMAROO. The market data cited in the source put its shares at around Rs 101.30, down 2.27 per cent, with an intraday range of Rs 100.10 to Rs 109.90 and a 52-week range of Rs 74.10 to Rs 142.
For Shemaroo, the latest closures underline a hard truth of television economics: a large audience may win attention, but without enough advertising money, keeping a channel on air can become a costly act.
