News Broadcasting
BBC leads the Bafta list of television nominations
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster, the BBC led the British Academy Television Awards nominations announced by the British Academy of Film and Television (Bafta). The awards will be presented on 7 May at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
In the drama serial category, BBC’s Bleak House is up against its own Fingersmith, Funland and To the Ends of the Earth.
The single drama nominations went to The Government Inspector (Mentorn Productions/Channel 4), Much Ado About Nothing (BBC/BBC1), The Queen’s Sister (Touchpaper Productions/Channel 4) and Red Dust (BBC Films/Distant Horizon/Videovision Entertainment/Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa/BBC2).
The BBC’s business based reality show The Apprentice has been nominated in the features category, alongside Dragon’s Den and Top Gear and Channel 4’s Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.
In the entertainment category the nominees are Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, Have I Got News For You, Strictly Come Dancing: The Grand Final and The X Factor.
The nominees for best actress are Gillian Anderson for Bleak House, Lucy Cohu for The Queen’s Sister, Anne-Marie Duff for Shameless and Anna Maxwell Martin for Bleak House. And, competing for best actor are Bernard Hill for A Very Social Secretary Denis Lawson for Bleak House, Mark Rylance for The Government Inspector and Rufus Sewell in a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.
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.
