News Broadcasting
Network18 keeps the news rolling as revenues buck ad slowdown in Q3
MUMBAI: When the ad market blinked, Network18 refused to. The broadcaster posted a resilient third quarter, with operating revenue from its news business rising 5 per cent year-on-year to Rs 500 crore in Q3 FY26, even as the wider TV news industry grappled with a double-digit drop in advertising demand.
Compared with Rs 477 crore in Q2 FY26, revenues were up 4.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter, underscoring Network18’s ability to steady the ship in choppy macro waters. For the first nine months of the financial year, news business operating revenue stood at Rs 1,408 crore, up 2.4 per cent year-on-year, despite a high base created by election-linked advertising last year.
Operating expenses grew in step but remained tightly controlled, rising 5.1 per cent YoY to Rs 489 crore in Q3. This helped operating EBITDA climb to Rs 11.8 crore, a sharp 60.7 per cent jump over the previous quarter, with margins improving to 2.4 per cent from 1.5 per cent in Q2.
The performance came at a time when ad inventory demand for TV news declined by over 10 per cent YoY. Network18 limited the impact through better inventory utilisation, supported by its diversified portfolio across languages and platforms and its strong leadership positions.
Commenting on the quarter, Network18 chairman Adil Zainulbhai said the group continued to defy industry trends despite a challenging macro environment, adding that government steps to boost consumption could eventually translate into higher advertising spends.
Beyond the balance sheet, the quarter saw strategic momentum. Network18 scaled up Creator18, its creator-led advertising vertical, to over 60 exclusive creators, with the top 10 delivering an unduplicated reach of more than 2 billion. Its first creator-driven TV show, Viral Baat Raunac Ke Saath, clocked over 3 million YouTube views.
Digital remained a strong growth lever. Moneycontrol doubled page views versus its nearest rival, crossed one million paid subscribers, and continued to build traction for its premium Super Pro offering. The network also renewed its partnership with CNN International for another 10 years, cementing its English news dominance.
On television, Network18 retained its crown as India’s number one news network, with viewership share rising 110 basis points YoY to 14.2 per cent. Across TV and digital, the group now reaches around 300 million users every month, while its 20-channel news portfolio connects with over 230 million TV viewers, roughly 45 per cent more than the nearest competitor.
In a year where advertising headwinds have tested the industry, Network18’s numbers suggest one thing clearly: the news may be tough, but the business of news is holding firm.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
