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Within Elara Media & Entertainment and Internet universe, Blinkit’s GMV may continue to grow, led by addition in dark stores and steady sequential profitability. GOV for Eternal’s (ETERNAL IN) food delivery may grow a modest 16.1% YoY. For legacy ad players, many headwinds outlined Q1 – Seasonal weakness, muted ad volume, fading election-led boost of last year. Affle India (AFFLE IN) is set to continue with balanced growth across all geographies, with margin likely dropping, led by higher costs. Better content slate may drive PVR-INOX’s footfall and other key metrics, and it may turn around at EBITDA level (pre-IND As profitability). DB Corp (DBCORP IN) may post a modest growth of 1.4%YoY on a high base of last year. ENIL’s growth may be led by the non-FCT segment. TV Today’s (TVTN IN) broadcasting revenue may drop 18% YoY due to election-led healthy base.

ETERNAL – Dark store addition to continue: In Q1E, ETERNAL’s revenue may grow 58.9%, mainly led by continued store additions by Blinkit (+270 in Q1E; total 1,571). This shall help GMV surge 136.7% YoY. Blinkit scaled operations at Solapur, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar and Guwahati in Q1. In food delivery, early rains are expected to ease rider availability issues experienced during the peak summer, while also modest boost in order volumes. Expect GOV to grow 16.1% YoY. ETERNAL’s other verticals – Hyperpure and Going Out are estimated to print 64.2% and 98.1% YoY growth, respectively. Competitive intensity may weigh on take rates (largely flat for Blinkit at 18.1%; food delivery may post 54bps YoY gain to 21.5% in Q1E, backed by ad revenue. For food delivery, adjusted EBITDAM may grow to 4.5% (11bps QoQ), led by contribution margin gain. Expect Blinkit to maintain its contribution margin at 3.2% with adjusted EBITDAM losses of INR 2.1bn in Q1E.

AFFLE: Growth momentum broadly maintained: AFFLE is expected to post a revenue growth of 18.7% YoY in Q1E, backed by largely sustained growth in developed markets (DM) at 26.0% YoY – healthy despite tariff-related volatility. India and Emerging Market geography is expected to grow at 16.0% YoY on a high base last year. While inventory costs and other expenses remain flat, a surge in appraisal-led employee expenses may likely trim EBITDAM to 21.7%, down 50bps QoQ, yet up 160bps YoY. Expect AFFLE to further accelerate its growth in across verticals in H2, backed by early onset of the festival season.

Ad woes spill over in Q1 for legacy players: Q1 is a seasonally weak quarter (shift to IPLled ads), with still lackluster ad volume demand, and absence of election-led boost of last year. Expect ad revenue for Zee Entertainment (Z IN) and Sun TV Network (SUNTV IN) to slip by 14.5% and 8% YoY. Z’s subscription revenue (3.3% YoY in Q1E) may be driven by a surge in digital (in high teens) amid flat show in TV, while SUNTV may post a growth of 3.0% YoY on a low base of last year. Profitability-wise, Z may be hit by operating deleverage, a sharp drop in ad revenue and weak theatrical show (which may drag EBITDA margin to 12.5%, a 60bps QoQ decline) even as gross margin may improve to 45.0%. SUNTV’s higher production costs (to support new channels and IPL-related expenses in Q1) are expected to pare EBITDA margin to 44.0%, from 55.4% last year and 47% in Q4FY25.

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