News Broadcasting
BBC’s project ‘Voices’ examines different accents, dialects in the UK
MUMBAI: The BBC’s DG Mark Thompson presented leading academic institutions in the UK with recordings of more than 1,000 people from all parts of the UK talking to the BBC about their dialect and accent.
The recordings, which will be preserved for future research into the English language, were made for the BBC’s Voices project – the biggest-ever exploration of language, accent and dialect in the UK. The BBC claims that it is the largest set of linguistic fieldwork interviews ever conducted, and involved asking people to tell the BBC about what they say and the way they say it.
Voices was a BBC-wide celebration and investigation into language, accent and dialect in the UK which culminated in a week of broadcasting in August 2005 across all the BBC’s local and national radio stations round the UK – as well as special programming on BBC ONE, BBC TWO, BBC FOUR, BBC Radio 4, 1Xtra and online on bbc.co.uk.
Language expert Professor David Crystal, called the Voices Recordings “the most significant popular survey of regional English ever undertaken in Britain.”
Extracts from the Voices recordings can be heard online by clicking on an interactive map at bbc.co.uk/voices. The recordings were made over a six-month period by 50 BBC journalists based at each of the BBC’s local and nations radio stations, in conjunction with the School of English at the University of Leeds. Thompson will present complete sets of all the Voices recordings and interviews to representatives of The British Library and the University of Leeds.
These included the BBC Two documentary Word on the Street and the six-part Radio 4 series Word 4 Word. The Voices team is also ensuring that the results of a series of online surveys run on bbc.co.uk/voices – to which 63,000 members of the public contributed – will be deposited with the universities at Leeds and Cardiff and also with the Centre for Deaf Studies in Bristol.
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.
