Access Shemaroo’s Q1FY27 earnings call transcript here: [ PDF ]

We missed this earlier: Shemaroo’s Chief Operating Officer Arghya Chakravarty said on the company’s Q1 FY27 earnings call that YouTube Shorts monetization has barely moved, echoing industry-wide concerns. He made this statement during the Q1 FY27 earnings call on July 24. 

“In terms of the monetization [of YouTube Shorts], there has been no movement. Monetization is still not happening to the kind of extent that one had assumed. The needle has nearly not moved,” said the Chief Operating Officer at Shemaro. He was responding to a question raised by Chirag, an analyst, on YouTube’s monetisation policy.

“Our focus has actually been on driving significant consumption on the connected TV kind of platform, which has significantly better monetization.” — Hiren Gada, CEO of Shemaroo.

Tips Music has also been seeking revenue sharing on YouTube Shorts: In January 2026, MediaNama reported on their Q3 FY ’26 earnings conference call. During the call, Tips Music’s Chief Financial Officer Sushant Dalmia said, “In case of Shorts, we are saying over a medium to long term, that model would move from a fixed fee to a revenue share. It won’t happen on an immediate basis, but on a medium to long term, it would happen.”

Latest developments in YouTube Shorts monetisation: Earlier this week, YouTube announced that starting from February 1, 2027, YouTube channels will need 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days to qualify for ad and subscription revenue sharing. If not, they can earn revenue from their non-shorts long-form content. The revenue sharing from shorts would automatically be enabled if the views hit 10 million again. 

What is a qualified view for YouTube shorts: A qualified Shorts view is a public Short that appears in the Shorts feed on YouTube app and is watched past the initial seconds by the viewer. This excludes looped shorts, views from private, unlisted, deleted Shorts, ads, long-form videos, or image-based posts.

Shemaroo to keep a hold on micro dramas; cites monetisation concerns: “Micro drama is something which has seen a lot of explosions, especially in countries like China, and also is happening in India… We are also looking at this segment… monetization is still something which is still a bit of a question mark… We have kept ourselves technologically capable to accommodate micro dramas in it but not yet gone full throttle in terms of acquisition of content around it.” said Arghya Chakravarty, COO. 

Free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels are degrowing: “In terms of the FAST ecosystem globally, it has actually been degrowing in the last, I would say about almost 12 to 18 months, it has been degrowing… we also had more channels, we also have shrunk it down to two channels,” said Hiren Gada, CEO. 

“We are completely free-dish, our monetization of the channels are completely dependent on advertising… in some channels, the monetization is not good enough to make it a break-even business.” added Arghya Chakravarty, COO. 

Shemaroo’s OTT vertical might breakeven in the next two years: Despite these challenges in FAST segment, Shemaroo remains optimistic about its OTT platform, which the CEO expects to break even within the next two years. He also noted that ShemarooMe’s two-year subscription plan has seen decent adoption.

Shemaroo’s Gujrati vertical acquires OHO Gujarati: “On ShemarooMe Gujarati, the platform acquired the OHO Gujarati catalogue in April 2026, adding over 22 Gujarati original web series. We also released 10 new titles, during the quarter across movies, web series and plays including the original web series Kajodu, and the world digital premiere of Jalebi Rocks.” added Hiren Gada, CEO. 

Addressing the financials, Ashish Gupta, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), stated the following figures: 

  • Digital media revenue fell by approximately 17% year-over-year to around Rs. 56 crores in Q1 FY27.
  • Traditional media revenu rose by about 5% year-over-year to roughly Rs. 76 crores. 
  • Total operational revenue stood at approximately Rs. 132 crores, reflecting a 6% year-over-year decline.

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