News Broadcasting
BBC World Service invites audience to help create interactive drama
MUMBAI: BBC World Service’s weekday magazine programme Outlook is doing an interactive drama collaboration that asks listeners to help create a play – Kim’s Game – to be broadcast in the World Drama slot on 16 February.
The idea is that Outlook listeners will steer the writer Jonathan Myerson in his scripting of the full 60-minute play.
In Kim’s Game, a young woman walks into a London police station with no idea of who she is or how she got there.
She goes on Outlook to explain her predicament on air and to ask if anyone out there knows her. Her plea appears online as a blog, with pictures of the objects that she has with her – which include a key and two photos.
She calls herself Kim – after the game in which listeners have to look at objects on a tray and then remember them when they are removed. Meanwhile, she tries to regain her memory. What does the key open? Who is the young man in the photo, which seems to have been torn in half?
Listeners are invited to post comments identifying the pictures or the key, suggesting who the young woman might be and what might have happened to her. Each day, she will learn more about herself from the listeners.
When other clues turn up, Outlook’s listeners are invited to contribute. Perhaps there is a song she can’t get out of her head? What does it mean? Perhaps the door which can be opened by the key is found – what lies behind it?
Finally, the young woman discovers something that raises big questions about how she came to be where she is.
News Broadcasting
Network18 Q4 revenue grows 9.7 per cent, EBITDA at Rs 30 crore
PAT improves to Rs 306.6 crore, margins steady amid cost pressures.
MUMBAI: Not all news is breaking, some of it is quietly improving. Network18 Media & Investments Limited appears to be doing just that, tightening losses and stabilising margins even as costs continue to weigh on the business. For FY26, the company reported revenue from operations of Rs 1,955.1 crore, up from Rs 1,896.2 crore in FY25, signalling modest top-line growth in a challenging media environment. Total income stood at Rs 1,978.2 crore, compared to Rs 1,913 crore a year earlier.
Profit after tax came in at Rs 306.6 crore for the year, a sharp turnaround from Rs 3,225.4 crore in FY25, largely reflecting the absence of large exceptional items that had inflated the previous year’s numbers. On a more comparable basis, the company’s operating performance showed signs of gradual stabilisation.
However, the quarterly picture remained under pressure. For the March quarter, Network18 reported a loss of Rs 53.1 crore, narrower than the Rs 98.1 crore loss in the same period last year, but still indicative of ongoing cost challenges.
Expenses continued to track high. Total expenses for FY26 stood at Rs 2,235.7 crore, up from Rs 2,197.8 crore in FY25. Key cost heads included operational expenses of Rs 765.9 crore, employee benefits of Rs 475.9 crore, and marketing, distribution and promotional spends of Rs 427.1 crore, underlining the continued investment required to sustain reach and engagement.
At an operating level, margins remained under strain. Operating margin stood at 2.33 per cent for FY26, marginally higher than 1.77 per cent in FY25, while net profit margin remained negative at -13.02 per cent, though improved from -14.89 per cent.
On the balance sheet, total assets rose to Rs 8,957.6 crore as of 31 March 2026, from Rs 8,317.5 crore a year earlier. Equity strengthened to Rs 4,958.7 crore, while borrowings increased to Rs 3,112.8 crore, reflecting a higher reliance on debt to support operations.
Cash flows told a mixed story. While financing activities generated Rs 83.9 crore, operating cash flow remained negative at Rs -24 crore, highlighting ongoing pressure on core cash generation. Cash and cash equivalents, however, improved to Rs 33.9 crore from Rs 1.8 crore.
The numbers point to a company in transition growing revenues, trimming losses, but still grappling with structural cost pressures. In a sector where scale often comes at a price, Network18 seems to be inching towards balance, one quarter at a time.
