News Broadcasting
ET Now completes nine years in the business news genre
MUMBAI: English business news (EBN) channel ET Now completed nine years of its existence on 17 June. It has also been a year since the channel revamped itself last August with the tagline ‘rise with India’. The move was to go beyond just business clips to be a holistic channel.
The channel claims that its debate show The Development Debate has shown consistency in ratings. ET Now managing editor Sandeep Gurumurthi said, “We want to play an active role in shifting the public discourse back to issues of development. We are today, the only channel doing that. But I am hopeful that over time, others will see merit and follow suit.”
EBN genre is still very niche with only five channels in the race – CNBC TV18, ET Now, BTVI, NDTV Profit and CNBC TV18 Prime HD. The genre contributes to less than one per cent of the total TV pie, where ET Now holds a comfortable position.
On the competition, Gurumurthi said, “We hope CNBC-TV18, BTVI and all other channels catch up with us and help us in shifting the media narrative back to development. I think it’s all about making a choice.”
He believes that the biggest challenge EBN channels are facing right now is that the genre has been boxed into a niche category apart from all the challenges that general English news channels face.
ET Now reaches 28 lakh viewers every month on an average with strong viewership from the six metros. Mumbai has traditionally contributed the most to viewership and remains the trend as informed by Gurumurthi. There are some channels that get disproportionate viewership from markets like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala. “There are also instances where for some business channels, a market gets active for three weeks contributing 70 per cent to their viewership and then for the rest of year contributes three or four TVTs,” he added.
He believes that the channel’s strategy remains to consolidate its position as a credible, independent and unbiased provider of news and insights to the get-ahead Indian. The aim is to do whatever it takes to remain consistent with the channel’s tagline. With the four upcoming assembly elections, the channel intends to cover them with the same intensity and rigour as a general news channel would.
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.
