News Broadcasting
BBC World Service multi-media project wins award
LONDON: Digital Destinations, a multimedia project developed by the BBC World Service Trust in collaboration with BBC News Online, BBC Science Radio Unit, World Service Education Commissioning, and BBC World Service Bengali and French for Africa Sections, received the NetMedia EOJ Award for Technology in Barcelona a few days ago.
World Service Trust director Stephen King said, “The success of Digital Destinations shows what can be achieved when different parts of the BBC work together. Making information and communications technology more accessible and relevant to people in the developing world helps bridge the digital divide between the information rich and the information poor.”
The project brought together a series of BBC World Service radio programmes; the BBC News Online interactive web-site Digital Destinations; and a video, which was shown at a UN ICT Task Force meeting in Geneva in February 2003.
Radio programmes were produced by BBC World Service’s Bengali Service and French for Africa Service. The English series, From Dakar to Dhaka, Connecting Communities, was broadcast in October 2002 as part of the weekly BBC World Service programme Go Digital.
The project’s radio producers, on-line journalists and filmmaker travelled together to visit grassroots projects in two contrasting developing countries – Bangladesh and Senegal to explore how grassroots projects were helping to alleviate poverty and bridge the digital divide in the developing world.
In Bangladesh it showed how women village dwellers were making a living by renting out airtime on their mobile phones; examined the fight against corruption using digital maps with a computerised national database to decide where new roads or schools should be built and looked at a school using wireless technology to introduce pupils in the countryside to the internet.
In Senegal it showed a health centre using computers to keep traditional healing knowledge alive; how an NGO was dealing with the lack of text books by putting together its own and making it available on the internet.
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.
