News Broadcasting
Americans hooked to surfing at work: Study
MUMBAI: Ask the working Americans to choose between their morning coffee and internet surfing at work – Don’t be shocked when a majority of them would go for the latter option. Exactly 49 per cent said they would rather give up their morning coffee!
This is just one of many startling results thrown up by a research conducted by Harris Interactive for Employee Internet Management (EIM) software company Websense Inc. Last month, 500 employees and 350 IT managers of organizations with at least 100 employees were polled on their web and software application usage in the workplace.
Some of the interesting findings surfaced during the survey:
51 per cent of employees said they spend between one and five hours per week surfing the Internet at work for personal reasons, that is an average of 2 hours per week.Approximately 17 per cent of employees admit to using instant messaging (IM) at work. Interestingly enough, almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of companies do not have corporate-sanctioned instant messaging, according to IT managers.
22 per cent of male employees said they had visited a porn site while at work, while 12 per cent of women had done so. Of those, 13 per cent of the men admitted it was intentional. Of the women that indicated they had visited a porn site at work, all of them said it was unintentional.
21 per cent of employees said they use streaming media to do such things as listen to Internet radio or watch live news casts via the web, while six per cent of respondents admitted to ever downloading and storing any non-work related video clips or movie clips on to their work computer. However, IT managers estimate that 10 per cent of their company’s total disk space is taken up by non-work related files, such as mp3 files, photos, and movies.
News sites with 84 per cent top the list of the most popular types of non-work related Web sites that employees access at work, followed by travel
(64 per cent), personal email (56 per cent), shopping (55 per cent), and online banking (53 per cent).64 per cent of men admitted to accessing non-work related Web sites during work hours versus 55 per cent of women. Furthermore, men are two times more likely than women to visit chat rooms or message boards during work hours, and they are also two times more likely than women to visit mp3 sites.
In addition, the survey exposed IT managers’ ignorance of the real goings-on in their territory! They are either not aware of, or do not fully understand the risks presented by new emerging Internet threats such as spyware, unsanctioned instant messaging, peer-to-peer file sharing and Web-based viruses such as MyDoom. For example, nearly 95 percent of IT managers rely on their company’s current anti-virus software’s ability to stop viruses, yet two-thirds reported that their organisations were infected by a web-based virus.
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.
