PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q3–2026Q2) · Dividend yield is based on ₩0 per share · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close
LG HelloVision returned to a small net profit in 2025 after two consecutive years of losses, but the size of its earnings has been shrinking again in 2026 as a one-off education device contract fades and competition in broadcasting and the budget mobile business intensifies.
2025 consolidated revenue reached KRW 1.2657 trillion with operating profit of KRW 18.7 billion and owners' net income of KRW 1.78 billion, ending a run of net losses in 2023-2024.
The company posted an operating loss of KRW 7.86 billion and a net loss of KRW 10.4 billion in 4Q25, then returned to profit in 1Q-2Q26, though at a smaller scale.
2Q26 revenue fell 31.3% year over year to KRW 243.3 billion and operating profit dropped 71.7% to KRW 3.0 billion, largely due to the wind-down of a smart-device supply contract for schools.
Merchandise sales including rental and education devices accounted for 26.0% of 2025 revenue, overtaking the broadcasting segment's 22.2% share for the first time.
SK Securities set a target price of KRW 2,400 for LG HelloVision in a May 2026 report, stating that confirmation of a profitability turnaround is still needed.
LG HelloVision operates cable TV (SO) services under the 'Hello tv' brand across 23 broadcasting zones nationwide, making it Korea's largest cable operator by subscriber count.
Its business is organized around five pillars: broadcasting (cable TV, VOD, advertising), internet, mobile virtual network operator services (MVNO, branded Hello Mobile), rental (installment and subscription sales of home appliances), and local/regional business (local-channel media and B2B).
In 2Q26, segment revenue consisted of KRW 119.8 billion from broadcasting, KRW 33.5 billion from internet, KRW 36.8 billion from MVNO, KRW 30.8 billion from rental, and KRW 21.9 billion from regional business including media and B2B.
LG Uplus is the controlling shareholder with a majority stake, and LG HelloVision leases network capacity from LG Uplus to provide its internet and MVNO services.
While the company still holds the top position among cable operators, subscriber migration toward IPTV and OTT platforms continues to erode its broadcasting revenue share. Hello Mobile, its MVNO brand, competes primarily on price through SIM-only plans and unlocked-device bundling versus the three major carriers.
To offset weakening broadcasting revenue, the company has rapidly expanded non-broadcasting businesses such as home appliance rental and education-focused digital transformation services (branded 'Ring School').
It competes against other multiple system operators such as SK Broadband, KT Skylife (including HCN), Deallive, and CMB in both cable TV and MVNO markets.
| Quarter | Revenue | Operating profit | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025Q2 | ₩354.1B | ₩10.5B | 3.0% |
| 2025Q3 | ₩298.5B | ₩9B | 3.0% |
| 2025Q4 | ₩299.5B | -₩7.9B | −2.6% |
| 2026Q1 | ₩255.4B | ₩5.1B | 2.0% |
| 2026Q2 | ₩243.3B | ₩3B | 1.2% |
| Year | Revenue | Operating profit | Net income (parent) | Op. margin | ROE | Debt-to-equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ₩1.2T | ₩53.8B | -₩26B | 4.6% | −4.2% | 128.3% |
| 2023 | ₩1.2T | ₩47.4B | -₩45.4B | 4.0% | −8.0% | 133.4% |
| 2024 | ₩1.2T | ₩13.5B | -₩106.2B | 1.1% | −23.9% | 180.0% |
| 2025 | ₩1.3T | ₩18.7B | ₩1.8B | 1.5% | 0.4% | 179.6% |
Consolidated basis (financial statements including subsidiaries) · Final figures from DART filings · Net income attributable to owners of the parent · Data as of 2026-08-23
On an annual basis, 2025 revenue rose to KRW 1.2657 trillion (from KRW 1.1964 trillion), operating profit reached KRW 18.7 billion (versus KRW 13.5 billion), and owners' net income was KRW 1.78 billion, ending three consecutive years of net losses in 2022-2024 (-KRW 26.0 billion, -KRW 45.4 billion, and -KRW 106.2 billion, respectively).
However, the operating margin of 1.5% in 2025 remains well below the 4.6% and 4.0% levels seen in 2022 and 2023, meaning top-line growth has not translated cleanly into a profitability recovery.
Quarterly results were volatile: 2Q25 posted solid revenue of KRW 354.1 billion, operating profit of KRW 10.5 billion, and net income of KRW 7.2 billion, while 3Q25 revenue slipped to KRW 298.5 billion even as operating profit rose to KRW 9.0 billion and net income fell to KRW 2.0 billion.
In 4Q25, despite revenue holding at KRW 299.5 billion, the company swung to an operating loss of KRW 7.86 billion and a net loss of KRW 10.4 billion, a reversal widely attributed to one-off restructuring costs tied to the wind-down of local businesses such as Museum L and the Jecheol Jangteo broadcast commerce operation.
Momentum in 2026 showed 1Q26 revenue of KRW 255.4 billion with operating profit of KRW 5.1 billion and net income of KRW 3.0 billion, followed by 2Q26 revenue of KRW 243.3 billion with operating profit of KRW 3.0 billion and net income of KRW 1.1 billion — a return to profit, but both revenue and profit contracted noticeably from the year-ago quarters.
The 2Q26 revenue decline stemmed from a shrinking smart-device supply market for schools combined with weak broadcasting and telecom industry conditions, with broadcasting and MVNO revenue each falling 2.7% and 9.9% year over year.
Cash generation has been comparatively resilient, with annual operating cash flow (CFO) improving to KRW 121.1 billion in 2025 from KRW 87.9 billion in 2024 and KRW 84.4 billion in 2023, though still short of the KRW 179.0 billion recorded in 2022.
On the balance sheet, equity fell from KRW 625.5 billion in 2022 to KRW 452.7 billion in 2025 while the debt ratio climbed from 128.3% to 179.6%, indicating that accumulated losses and asset impairments have eroded the company's capital buffer.
Korea's pay-TV market is in a structurally declining phase. As of the first half of 2025, cable TV (SO) subscribers stood at 12.09 million, down from 12.27 million in the second half of 2024, while IPTV subscribers rose by 100,000 to 21.41 million, continuing a shift in the center of gravity of pay TV toward IPTV.
LG HelloVision remains the largest SO operator with 3.43 million subscribers, but that base is also shrinking.
In the MVNO market, the government's 'MVNO 2.0' initiative announced in late July 2026 lowered wholesale prices for revenue-share (RS) plans by up to 3 percentage points depending on the carrier, but high-demand flagship plans such as the LTE 11GB offering and premium 5G plans were excluded, leading to assessments that the policy's practical impact is limited.
Discussions continue around potential market-share caps for MVNO subsidiaries of large conglomerates, and tensions within the industry have surfaced, including LG HelloVision's withdrawal from the MVNO industry association over concerns that dues outweighed the benefits.
Conversely, some brokerage analysis suggested that carrier-affiliated MVNOs, including LG HelloVision, could see some spillover subscriber gains following the 2025 SK Telecom data breach incident.
Rivals are pursuing their own diversification: SK Broadband toward AI data centers and KT Skylife toward AI-based sports broadcasting, reflecting a broader industry trend of offsetting core business stagnation with new ventures across all three major pay-TV operators.
The company has stated that a broadcasting- and telecom-centric business model is no longer sustainable on its own, and has laid out plans to expand its portfolio beyond rental and MVNO into regional new businesses.
Rental has been cited as a notable success, driven by youth-oriented home appliances such as robot vacuum cleaners and portable screens, though this growth also carries a rising working-capital burden from growing long-term receivables and cost-ratio pressure.
The education digital-transformation business benefited from large contracts such as the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education's smart-device supply deal, boosting merchandise sales, but the company itself has acknowledged that revenue from such contracts is largely one-off, meaning sustainability depends on securing new orders.
Among regional businesses, lower-profitability operations such as Museum L (a culture project at Incheon's Sangsang Platform) and the broadcast-commerce venture Jecheol Jangteo were wound down during 2025 as part of portfolio streamlining.
Management has continued to prioritize cost efficiency as the key lever for profitability recovery in the second half, with the CFO emphasizing cost-structure improvement. Leadership continuity was preserved following year-end 2025 personnel decisions that kept the current CEO in place.
In the MVNO business, the company continues to diversify partner-linked plans such as insurance and coupon-pack bundles to attract subscribers, but since the government's wholesale price cuts largely bypassed flagship plans, the pace of margin improvement in this segment may remain limited.
LG HelloVision's shares trade at a level well below their book value per share, placing the stock in a discount range relative to net assets. The company has not paid a dividend in the most recent fiscal year, so shareholder returns through dividends have not been in place.
On the earnings side, the company swung from a loss to a profit on a full-year basis in 2025, but slipped back into a loss in 4Q25, and the scale of profit in 1Q-2Q26 has also narrowed versus the prior-year quarters, suggesting earnings stability has yet to be firmly established.
Sell-side commentary has echoed this, noting valuation appeal alongside a need to confirm a profitability turnaround. SK Securities, in a May 2026 report, set a target price of KRW 2,400 while assessing that the tangible effects of management efficiency measures had not yet become clearly visible. Overall, market attention appears focused on whether the recent earnings recovery can be sustained.
PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are all calculated in-house (the same method as Naver and Toss) · Dividend yield = cash dividend per share from DART filings (supplemented by KRX) ÷ current price · As of 2026-08-23
In 2025, operating cash flow reached KRW 121.1 billion, an improvement over 2023-2024. Even during periods of minimal profit or losses, cash flow has remained relatively stable due to the business characteristic of large non-cash expenses such as depreciation. This is a factor that can partially support the funds needed for debt repayment or new business investment.
Product sales including rentals and educational devices accounted for 26.0% of total 2025 revenue, surpassing broadcasting revenue's share for the first time.
Home appliance rentals such as robot vacuum cleaners and StandbyME have shown growth by absorbing MZ generation demand, and the education DX business has experience securing large-scale local government contracts. The strategic direction of reducing dependence on broadcasting revenue is being confirmed in numbers.
Following the 2025 SK Telecom hacking incident, some securities analysts expected a reflected benefit as subscribers moved to MVNOs affiliated with major telecom carriers.
Although the wholesale price cuts under the government's MVNO 2.0 Leap Plan are limited to certain rate plans, the overall direction favors MVNO operators. HelloMobile continues to attract customers through USIM rate plans combined with unlocked device sales.
Cable TV subscribers have continued to decline since the second half of 2024, with a clear shift toward IPTV and OTT. Broadcasting business revenue has declined for three consecutive years since 2023, and advertising service revenue has also decreased.
Separate from its status as the No. 1 operator with the largest subscriber base in Korea, the thinning revenue base of the core business itself is a structural weakness.
The surge in product sales in 2025 was largely attributable to a one-time order for the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education's smart device supply contract. This is demonstrated by the fact that as the scale of related business shrank entering 2026, second-quarter revenue decreased 31.3% year-on-year.
If similar new orders are not repeated every year, the sustainability of top-line growth is difficult to guarantee.
The debt-to-equity ratio rose from 128.3% in 2022 to 179.6% in 2025, while equity capital decreased from KRW 625.5 billion to KRW 452.7 billion over the same period.
In Q4 2025, the company recorded both an operating loss and a net loss simultaneously due to one-time expenses related to restructuring of regional-based businesses. It cannot be ruled out that similar one-time expenses may recur in the future during the process of winding down low-profit businesses.
Discussions continue regarding market share restrictions on MVNOs affiliated with large conglomerates, and there are also concerns that the wholesale price negotiation structure is designed unfavorably for conglomerate affiliates.
As policy conflicts within the industry have come to the surface, exemplified by LG HelloVision's withdrawal from the MVNO Association, business conditions may vary depending on the future direction of regulation.
As the structural shift of platforms toward IPTV and OTT continues, the cable TV subscriber base keeps shrinking.
External cost factors surrounding the broadcasting business, such as home shopping transmission fees and channel usage fees, are also acting as a burden, making it difficult to find an opportunity for a rebound in the core business.
Amid continued increases in the debt-to-equity ratio and reduction in equity capital, there is a possibility that non-recurring expenses such as asset impairment may occur again during the process of winding down low-profit businesses.
The working capital burden from the increase in long-term trade receivables in the rental business is also a factor to observe from a financial soundness perspective.
LG HelloVision is expected to release preliminary 3Q26 results. Key items to watch include rental and MVNO revenue trends, any new education-device contract wins, and whether the broadcasting revenue decline persists.
Follow-up measures under the government's 'MVNO 2.0' initiative — including selection of partial/full MVNO operators and detailed wholesale pricing standards — may be finalized, warranting a check on the impact on MVNO profitability.
Full-year and 4Q26 confirmed results are expected. This will be a key point to check whether one-off restructuring costs similar to 4Q25 recur and whether full-year net profit remains positive.
New contract announcements for smart-device supply programs with education offices or other public institutions should be monitored, as these directly affect merchandise sales and overall revenue scale.
LG HelloVision emerged from a loss structure that had persisted for three years and returned to a slight profit in 2025, but it is still too early to say this turnaround to profitability has been firmly established.
The one-time expense-driven loss recorded in Q4 2025 and the reduced scale of profit in the first half of 2026 leave question marks over the quality and sustainability of earnings.
The decline in cable TV subscribers and the structural contraction of broadcasting revenue are clear weakness factors in the core business, and the rental, education DX, and MVNO diversification efforts aimed at offsetting these have shown results while simultaneously carrying limitations of being one-time or low-margin in nature.
In terms of financial structure, the decline in equity capital and rise in debt-to-equity ratio have progressed together, but operating cash flow has remained relatively solid.
Securities analysts have also mentioned both valuation appeal and the need to confirm profitability improvement, suggesting that the repeatability of earnings and the profitability contribution of new businesses in future quarterly results will be key points to watch.
Ultimately, the core question surrounding this stock comes down to whether the 2025 turnaround to profitability marks the beginning of structural improvement, or is merely a temporary phenomenon relying on one-time factors.
Report written 2026-09-05 · Data as of 2026-09-04
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