News Broadcasting
An omnichannel approach is the best: MIS 2023
Mumbai: The Media Investment Summit (MIS) 2023 organised by Indiantelevision.com saw one of the panels discuss on the topic – ‘Ad-Tech: The Science behind reaching to right audiences programmatically and the art of sustaining them’. The session was moderated by XAXIS general manager Dimpy Yadav and the panellists were HDFC Bank senior vice-president & head of digital marketing Jahid Ahmed, DDB Mudra Group country head & managing partner – integrated media Rammohan Sundaram, Motorola Mobility India head of marketing Shivam Ranjan and Lemma national sales head Dheeraj Soni.
Talking about advertisers who prefer to buy media directly from publishers due to various factors be it transparency, publisher accountability, feasibility of innovations, better campaign performance. But programmatic is considered to be the future of digital media buying.
Yadav opened the floor for discussion and pointed out how audience targeting was an important point when it comes to the programmatic ecosystem. 2022 being a year of uncertainty, where a lot of brands and companies didn’t know how to navigate – and as an audience and a marketer too, everyone moved online, so how matters were perceived in that perspective.
Ahmed mentioned about how the pandemic allowed to reflect and work a lot on martech. Viewership has gone omnichannel. Be it BFSI or the e-commerce industry, it is the generation of commerce. “We have created an ad data hub, which we think is important to ensure that a campaign gets its due in terms of the right measurement metrics.”
Soni spoke on how for them their campaign objective is to reach out to a specific audience and convert them into potential customers.
Sundaram talked about the omnichannel approach, and that it’s very important for marketers to decide how they are going to capture their audience – each audience has different taste and requirements. Localisation and personalisation are also important.
Ranjan, too, shed light on how different consumers have different requirements and brands need to capitalise and prepare a strategy, accordingly.
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.
