BookMyShow
India's largest online ticketing app for movies, events, and live shows.
On the record
Checkpoint: FY26 results (year to March 2026) disclosing live-events profitability and growth trend
The call
BookMyShow still owns the cinema pipes and the big concert IP, but Zomato's District is already pulling at the live-events growth story that was supposed to carry it past ticketing.
BookMyShow sells tickets to movies, concerts, and live events across India and is currently profitable. The company has built advantages through exclusive deals with big cinema chains like PVR and INOX, plus ownership of major events like Coldplay concerts. However, Zomato (a food-delivery company) just bought a competing ticketing business and launched an app called District that can reach Zomato's 200 million existing users with a single tap. The biggest risk: BookMyShow is pouring money into live events and concerts to grow, but those events are losing money right now, so it depends entirely on movie tickets to survive. If District pulls away even a fraction of Zomato users to buy live-event tickets instead of using BookMyShow, the business model breaks.
Why
01
AI pressure: None apparent. No AI product is currently displacing ticketing demand; the real pressure is a super-app rival, not a model. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.
02
Bigger players: Zomato/Eternal's District app. District uses Zomato's 200M+ food-delivery users and payments rails to sell event tickets, hitting BookMyShow's fastest-growing segment. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. Exclusive cinema deals with PVR/INOX and control of major IP like Coldplay's India shows lock in supply District can't easily copy.
What would change this call
Zomato/Eternal quarterly filings show District's live-events GMV or ticket volume figures. Would show whether District is actually pulling event-ticketing share from BookMyShow.
KKR's $250-300M BookMyShow investment closes, collapses, or is repriced. Would show whether investors still value BookMyShow's moat at pre-Zomato-threat levels.
BookMyShow FY26 results (year to March 2026) report on live-events segment profit or loss. Would show whether live-events can turn profitable or remains subsidized by cinema ticketing.
KKR's $250-300M BookMyShow investment closes, collapses, or is repriced. Would show whether investors still value BookMyShow's moat at pre-Zomato-threat levels.
BookMyShow FY26 results (year to March 2026) report on live-events segment profit or loss. Would show whether live-events can turn profitable or remains subsidized by cinema ticketing.
Key numbers
- FY23 net profit Rs 85 crore, first profitable year
- Live-events revenue grew Rs 455cr to Rs 756cr but lost Rs 138cr
- KKR's $250-300M deal at ~$900M valuation stalled since Sept 2024
Named risks
- Live-events segment posted Rs 138 crore operating loss in FY24 despite fastest revenue growth.
- Zomato's District leverages a larger existing user base to contest live-events share.
- KKR's $250-300M investment remains unresolved since being clouded in September 2024.
- High-demand on-sale failures like the Coldplay 2024 crash draw police and regulatory scrutiny.
- CCI dominance finding could invite future antitrust complaints despite March 2026 dismissal.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Zomato (District) | gaining on | Acquired Paytm Insider/TicketNew for ~Rs 2,048 crore Aug 2024, uses Zomato user base for live-events push |
| Paytm Insider/TicketNew | losing to | Absorbed into Zomato's District after August 2024 acquisition |
| Showtyme | contesting | Filed 2021 antitrust complaint against BookMyShow's exclusives, dismissed by CCI March 2026 |
Questions people ask
- Is BookMyShow profitable in 2026?
- Yes. BookMyShow's FY25 (year to March 2025) consolidated net profit was Rs 192 crore, up from Rs 109 crore in FY24, driven by ticketing revenue of Rs 828 crore and live-events revenue of Rs 756 crore, per company financials reported January 2026.
- Who owns BookMyShow?
- Reliance Industries' Network18 is the largest shareholder, holding roughly 37% as of January 2024. Other backers include Accel, Elevation Capital, Stripes Group and TPG Growth. BookMyShow remains privately held with no public listing as of July 2026.
- Is BookMyShow going to IPO?
- BookMyShow held talks with merchant bankers about a possible IPO reported in February 2024, and speculation continued into 2026, but no filing or listing had occurred as of July 2026. A KKR investment of $250-300M at ~$900M valuation was also reported clouded since September 2024.
- Who is BookMyShow's biggest competitor?
- Zomato's District, formed after Zomato acquired Paytm's Insider events business and TicketNew for roughly Rs 2,048 crore in August 2024. District launched November 13, 2023, and leverages Zomato's large food-delivery user base to contest BookMyShow's live-events segment.
- Could AI replace BookMyShow?
- Unlikely soon. BookMyShow CTO Noel Curtis said in July 2026 that AI is used for discovery, bot-detection during ticket drops, and venue personalization, but frames it as augmenting rather than replacing the human live-experience product and BookMyShow's contractual cinema exclusivities.
- Is BookMyShow laying off staff?
- No major layoffs are reported. Headcount grew modestly from about 1,300 in October 2019 to roughly 1,536 by June 2026, a 5.3% year-over-year increase, according to Crustdata tracking as of June 23, 2026.
Timeline
- 2026-07-06CTO Noel Curtis details AI use in discovery, bot detection, venue personalization
- 2026-03-14CCI dismisses 2021 antitrust complaint, confirms dominance but upholds cinema exclusives as legitimate
- 2025-03FY25 results: net profit Rs 192 crore, live-events revenue rises to Rs 756 crore
- 2024-09-05KKR's proposed $250-300M investment reported clouded after Zomato-Paytm deal
- 2024-09Coldplay India on-sale crash prompts Mumbai Police summons of CEO and tech head
- 2024-08Zomato acquires Paytm's Insider and TicketNew for ~Rs 2,048 crore, forming District
- 2024-03FY24 results: revenue Rs 1,396.86 crore (+43% YoY), net profit Rs 108.63 crore
- 2024-01-16KKR reported in advanced talks for $250-300M stake at ~$900M valuation
- 2023-11-13Zomato launches District, later folded into its live-events push
- 2018BookMyShow raises $100M Series D led by TPG Growth at ~$750M pre-money valuation
Revision history
23 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Book My Show
- Roots to Fruits
- KKR looks to book a big-ticket investment in BookMyShow (2024-01-16)
- Bigtree Entertainment raises Rs 550 crore
- BookMyShow raises $100 mn funding led by TPG Growth
- BookMyShow Funding, Total Funding, Rounds & Investors (2026-05-29)
- Zomato's big Paytm play puts a spanner in KKR-BookMyShow deal (2024-09-05)
- BookMyShow profit nears Rs 110 Cr in FY24 (2024-12-09)
- Zomato upsets BookMyShow-KKR deal (2024-09-05)
- BookMyShow FY24 revenue jumps 43% (2024-12-09)
- BookMyShow posts Rs 192 crore profit on robust live events business (2026-01-15)
- Why the Competition Commission cleared BookMyShow of market dominance abuse charges (2026-03-14)