News Broadcasting
After hearing Zee’s side, case adjourned to Monday
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has adjourned hearing in the much-contested BCCI cricket telecast rights case to Monday after Zee Telefilms exhaustively put forward its argument.
Arguing before a two-judge Bench of Chief Justice DS Bhandari and Justice DY Chandrachud, Zee’s counsel argued that ESPN has not produced a ‘clean signal’ of live cricket matches completely in-house. Neither the West Indies-India series nor the South Africa-India and England matches were exclusively produced by ESPN. It was only in the Asia Cup that the production was done in-house.
Zee raised the point that ESPN had sidelined the consortium clause and was creating confusion over production facilities. The ‘hawk eye’ camera and other facilities belonged to proprietary companies and neither to ESPN or to Zee. ‘Today to produce the match for telecasting, cameras are planted. All of us rent out those facilities. It is only a question of how much each of us do,’ argued the Zee counsel.
ESPN had been showing cricket in India so far. Zee has a presence in 88 countries and has been showing cricket when India plays overseas. “If BCCI is entertaining Zee today, the board obviously considers us eligible,” said the Zee counsel.
Justice Chandrachud queried Zee counsel on whether the company had experience in TV production of cricket matches as Zee had mentioned ‘telecast but no production’ experience in its bid for the BCCI rights. Zee counsel admitted that Zee had never produced clean signals. “But neither ESPN nor Zee have produced clean signals for two years,” the counsel said.
Zee pointed out that PriceWaterhouse Coopers was the global auditor of ESPN and had a conflict of interest. “PwC had not sent any reply to Zee on its inquiries. But ESPN had got a response from PwC in a letter on September 6,” the counsel said.
India has emerged as the largest commercial market for cricket and accounts for 80 per cent of the worldwide revenue for the sport. BCCI has put up tenders and an Indian-owned company with a homegrown network with large production facilities has bid. “Let’s not miss the wood for the trees,” the Zee counsel said. “The public interest has suffered. ESPN has put no argument saying that it has been detrimental to public interest. They are only working for their interest and monopoly.”
Earlier, ESPN counsel argued that the licence was under Zee TV, USA. Zee had never done any cricket production, he added.
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.
