News Broadcasting
BBC R&D team wins award at International Broadcasting Convention
MUMBAI: Two BBC research scientists have been awarded the best technical paper prize at this year’s International Broadcasting Convention (IBC). The prize has been won jointly by Adam Wieworka and Peter Moss who are part of the BBC’s Research and Development Department based at Kingswood Warren.
This year’s IBC is to be held at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam from 8 to 13 September 2005. The prize winning paper will be presented on 9 September in the session Content Delivery – New Solutions are Born.
The paper – Digital On-Channel Repeater for DAB – describes a technique for improving reception of DAB digital radio services by using on-channel repeaters – small transmitters that pick up the wanted service off-air, amplify it and rebroadcast it. Normally such a technique would cause oscillation like the familiar ‘howl-round’ from microphone to loudspeaker. But Wieworka and Moss have developed digital signal processing circuitry that cancels out the feedback that causes instability.
Field trials have shown that the on-channel repeater does solve reception problems when a wanted signal is affected by interference from much stronger signals in adjacent channels. A similar technique could be used to improve DTT reception, but the processing required would be more complex. BBC R&D chief scientist Ian Childs said, “There is stiff international competition to present papers at IBC, so to have papers accepted for the conference – and we have many this year – is quite an honour. This award from an international conference shows once again the high regard that the whole industry has for the work done by this part of the BBC.”
The International Broadcasting Convention is by far the most important broadcasting technology event held in Europe, attracting over 40,000 visitors from around the world. Its Technical Conference aims to meet the needs of the creative, business and technical communities in both its in-depth coverage of subject material and the variety of different formats that its sessions take.
IBC Technical Papers Committee chairman Professor David Crawford, commented, “Each year the IBC Technical Papers Committee sets itself the near-impossible task of selecting a ‘best paper’ from the truly world class contributions to the IBC Papers Programme. The assessors were particularly impressed how the authors maintained the right balance between the complex mathematical theory of the subject and the practical implementation of a solution.
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.
