Sony Pictures Networks India profit rises 16% in FY26

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India has had rather a good year, and cricket deserves most of the credit. Consolidated net profit climbed 16 per cent to Rs 556 crore in FY26, up from Rs 481 crore, a sharp reversal from the previous year’s 45 per cent profit slump, powered by a cricket-heavy calendar, buoyant advertising and content spending kept firmly on a leash.

Regulatory filings accessed through the Ministry of Corporate Affairs show revenue from operations rose 9 per cent year-on-year to Rs 6,830 crore, while total income grew 9.4 per cent to Rs 7,064 crore. SPNI itself stayed tight-lipped on the numbers, but people familiar with the business point squarely to its cricket portfolio, led by the Asia Cup 2025 and its three India-Pakistan clashes, which ended with India lifting the trophy after a final that went right down to the wire.

The broadcaster had picked up Asian Cricket Council rights back in 2024, a deal running to 2031 and worth $170 million, and it has been busy putting that investment to work. SPNI also carried India’s Test series in England, sub-licensing the digital streaming rights to JioHotstar to help claw back some of its sports-rights outlay. That arrangement handed JioHotstar live cricket content once the Indian Premier League 2025 wrapped up, and now stretches to cover the ongoing India-England white-ball series, five T20Is and three ODIs in all.

Non-fiction stalwarts Kaun Banega Crorepati and Wheel of Fortune did their bit for advertising too, even as Sony Entertainment Television continues to wait for its breakthrough hit in Hindi fiction. Advertising revenue overall grew 19 per cent to Rs 3,165 crore, comfortably offsetting a 4 per cent decline in subscription revenue to Rs 3,254 crore, a dip partly down to the company’s ongoing distribution spat with DTH operator Tata Play. Licensing income and programme sales, meanwhile, surged 89 per cent to Rs 410 crore from Rs 217 crore, largely on the back of the JioHotstar sub-licensing deal.

Total expenditure rose 8 per cent to Rs 6,311 crore, driven by higher employee costs, depreciation and marketing spend. Employee benefit expenses alone jumped 18 per cent to Rs 801 crore, thanks to one-time severance costs after the company let go of more than 100 employees as part of a cost-rationalisation drive. Content, broadcasting and related costs, tellingly, actually fell 1.5 per cent to Rs 3,621 crore from Rs 3,674 crore, despite the small matter of carrying the Asia Cup, the England tour and its flagship reality shows all in the same year.

SPNI now owns and operates 28 television channels alongside its streaming platform SonyLIV. The scoreboard for FY26 makes the story plain enough: cricket won the match, advertising cashed in the runs, and the accountants somehow kept the costs from running away. Whether the broadcaster can repeat the trick without a home India-Pakistan final to lean on is the question for the season ahead.