News Broadcasting
ET Now edges past UTVi in launch week
MUMBAI: ET Now has overtaken UTVi to land in the third spot among the English business news channels, posing a potential threat to its competitors right from the launch week.
The channel, with The Economic Times advantage on television, has edged out UTVi both in the All-India market as well as the metros.
While UTVi’s channel share has dipped from 6 per cent to 4 per cent (All-India) for the week ended 27 June, ET Now has actually doubled its market share to attain the third rank.
ET Now opened with a three per cent market share pan India and doubled this to six per cent for the week ended 27 May.
In the metros too, the channel doubled its slice from 4 per cent in the previous week to 8 per cent. UTVi’s channel share, in comparison, fell from 9 per cent to six per cent during the same period.
So does UTVi foresee a severe damage to its ratings?
Says UTVi COO Sumit Gupta, “Ratings are a function of both reach and time spent and the only gains that ET has witnessed have come from a reach upside. Time spent per viewer on the other hand is a far more dependable measure for smaller segments.”
Meanwhile, it seems that the new entrant has also eaten into some share of NDTV Profit which has fallen to 20 per cent across India as against the 25 per cent that it held in the previous week. In the metros too, the channel has seen a dip from 26 per cent to 20 per cent.
So how does ET Now predict this upward movement?
Avers Times Global Broadcasting CEO Chintamani Rao, “These are early days for the channel as it is just one week old. I expect to get ourselves in place right now.”
Interestingly, the period has seen CNBC TV18, the incumbent market leader in the space, take a jump from 66 to 70 per cent in the All-India market. The channel also climbed the ladder to capture 67 per cent of the market (61 per cent last week) in the metros.
What may be encouraging is that the entry of ET Now is showing signs of expanding the English business news genre market pie.
According to the latest Tam data (C&S 25+), the genre has seen an upward move in its All-India viewership with a 0.23 per cent market share for the week ended 27 June. The genre had commanded a 0.22 per cent share the previous week.
In the metros too, the genre share has grown to 0.28 per cent, from 0.27 in the prior week. It is impertinent to note here that the genre had marked a 0.26 per cent share in week 24.
So what kind of impact does the genre expect with the entry of a new player?
Says Gupta, “The impact will largely be in terms of a wider choice for the viewer and the advertiser and also an additional buzz that will be created for the segment. All these factors bring in a renewed interest in the older players too. On the ratings side, for a genre that contributes to less than 1 per cent share of viewership, the shift is not expected to be tangible.”
“The real impact of a new player will be gauged in terms of the differentiated programming that the entrant puts together. Path breaking ideas and new formats will be monitored closely by the industry than anything else,” Gupta adds.
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.
