News Broadcasting
Cutting-edge, robotic, animal spies infiltrate the wild again in Sony BBC Earth’s premiere ‘Spy in the Wild 2’
Nature's spies are back undercover and this time, their mission is to go deeper into the animal world than ever thought possible. Spy in the Wild revolutionized wildlife filmmaking with the use of cutting edge technology and now with Season 2, the makers have set new benchmarks as they placed more than 50 realistic animatronic spy creatures across the globe, taking the viewers into the heart of the extraordinary lives of 40 remarkable and real wild animals. Premiering on Sony BBC Earth on 21st September with Lenovo as the Associate Sponsor, ‘Spy in the Wild 2’ will air in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, from Monday to Friday at 9PM.
Each spy creature looks like the real animals it films and behaves like them too, giving us an intimate sneak peek into the unseen world of animal behavior and gatherings. Accepted by animal families, these robotic lookalikes film from an insider’s perspective gaining revelatory insights into their worlds as they feed, breed and fight. In Season 2, the spy cams not only take to air, ground and underwater but also go beyond animals and infiltrate the wild via objects, allowing a spy turtle to lay robot eggs, a spy squirrel to gather robot nuts, monkeys to play with a spy snowball and more.
To ensure a wider reach for this pioneering series, Sony BBC Earth deployed a strong on-air and digital campaign. To begin with, an innovative and engaging AR filter was launched on Facebook and Instagram to bring alive the essence of the series – the robotic animals with an eye of the spy. The filter incorporates this ‘eye of the spy’ coupled with upbeat audio cues, making this filter not only strikingly different but also a lot of fun.
Additionally, the channel on boarded popular Bollywood actor – Varun Sharma, who with his inimitable humor and quirk is promoting the series digitally via specially curated promos. The eccentric and light-hearted promos reveal that a couple of undercover spy animals have taken over Varun’s life and are exposing his intimate moments hence driving the message – ‘with spies up close, all the drama will be exposed’.
For on-air promotions, viewers will get to be a part of an amusing and engaging campaign, ‘Spot the Spy’. Since the realistic appearance of the spies make it difficult to differentiate them from the real animals, the on-air contest will revolve around spotting the spy in the wild. There will be a different spy animal appearing on the TV screen daily, for 5 days and first 5 viewers – who spot the spy, click a picture of the spy on the TV screen and send it to @sonybbcearth using #SpotTheSpy on Facebook – will win exciting gifts every day. Sony BBC Earth’s social media pages will be used extensively to promote and popularize the campaign and drive people to the channel.
News Broadcasting
Network18 posts Rs 1,955 crore revenue, narrows FY26 losses
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.
