News Broadcasting
First NT Awards Delhi jury meet ends, 200 entries screened
NEW DELHI: The three-day New Delhi chapter of the jury meetings for nominating awardees for the country’s first NT Awards of Indiantelevision.com concluded here today, after the jurors watched close to 200 representations sent by various news channels.
The channels had sent in their representations in various categories – with each category having separate Hindi and English sections.
Of the entries received, those in the categories of Entertainment, Lifestyle & Fashion and Talk Show (Hindi) – were screened today and were evaluated by a jury comprising some of the leading scribes and creative persons in the respective fields.
The categories screened yesterday – the second day of the jury meeting – had included both hard news and business news reports.
Of these, the hard news segment included daily newscast (Hindi and English); news documentary programme (Hindi and English) and crime show (Hindi).
The business section included various other categories, like talk shows, news reports and documentary among others, for which jurors with specialisation in business reporting met in a screening room separate from the one in which the hard news items were watched.
The jurors found the entire exercise free and independent, with entries being marked first on a rough score card. These entries had to be transferred by the jurors themselves into the final ballot, and signed by them.
The final ballots were then shipped to the independent auditing team from the reputed agency, Ernst & Young, who were present in the same building complex in a separate room.
The ballots marked by them were then tabulated by the auditors and the names of the top five were given in print in the stationary of the auditing company.
Finally, the jurors were required to sign the names of the top five sent in by the auditing firm, though the names of the final winners are still being kept a strict secret known to the auditors alone.
The elaborate procedure has been made fool proof and tamper free, in the usual international standard and procedure followed.
The jurors had the freedom to do two things: one, decide how long of each item they would like to watch; and two, whether an individual entry did not at all fit into the category for which the particular channel had sent the representation. In both instances, the jury had to come to a consensus, without which no decision on these two issues were taken.
The Mumbai chapter of jury meeting will take place later this month, with categories like sports, promos, etc., being evaluated for nomination.
The final award ceremony will be held in Delhi in the middle of July and prizes for the best products in at least 50 categories would be given away.
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.
