Sun TV Q1FY27: Consolidated PAT +17% YoY on cricket vertical; core TV business flat

Sun TV's consolidated PAT came in at ₹619.07 Cr, up 17.0% YoY (owners' share ₹618.82 Cr), on consolidated revenue of ₹1,457.88 Cr, up 13.0% YoY. Standalone PAT was ₹611.97 Cr (+15.8% YoY) on revenue of ₹1,423.39 Cr (+13.3% YoY), tracking closely with the consolidated print — no material standalone/consolidated divergence this quarter. The result beat Street: Univest had modelled Q1 FY27 revenue of ~₹1,266 Cr and PAT of ~₹500 Cr; the actual print cleared both estimates by a wide margin. The growth was concentrated almost entirely in the cricket franchise business (SunRisers Hyderabad, SunRisers Eastern Cape and SunRisers Leeds), which contributed revenue of ₹629.83 Cr, up 33.1% YoY from ₹473.03 Cr, as the franchise-cricket calendar (IPL/SA20/The Hundred) falls in this quarter. Stripping out cricket revenue, the core broadcast business grew just ~1.3% YoY (₹828 Cr vs ₹817 Cr) — advertisement revenue actually fell 2.6% YoY to ₹282.51 Cr (from ₹289.94 Cr), while domestic subscription revenue rose a modest 3.3% to ₹485.46 Cr. Margins expanded on the back of the cricket season's operating leverage: consolidated net margin (PAT/total income) rose to 37.9% from 35.8% a year ago, and standalone EBITDA margin improved to 51.5% from 49.1%. Sequential growth (revenue +65.2% QoQ, PAT +166.5% QoQ) is a seasonality artifact of the cricket calendar — Q4 FY26 (Jan-Mar) is a cricket off-season quarter with standalone revenue of just ₹848.48 Cr — and should not be read as underlying momentum. Management gives no formal quarterly guidance and there is no prior concall on record in our data to check tone against. Management's own earnings release frames the quarter as revenue +13% YoY and EBITDA +19% YoY on the back of the cricket properties and PAT +16% YoY (standalone basis), consistent with the reported figures, though it does not separately flag the advertising revenue decline. The board also declared a first interim dividend of ₹5 per share (100% of face value) for FY27, with a record date of August 18, 2026. With the franchise-cricket business as the primary swing factor in both revenue and margins, the next test is Q2 FY27 — a seasonally lighter cricket quarter — where the core ad/subscription trend, currently soft with advertising revenue down YoY, will be more visible in the headline numbers without the cricket-season cushion.