News Broadcasting
‘From Gurukul’ to ‘Fame X’ and Sony to Sab
MUMBAI: Sony Entertainment Television India’s Sab is all set to unleash its first reality show with the refurbished version of Fame Gurukul that has been re-branded as Fame X.
New version of the reality musical show will hit the tube in mid-November as daily weekday offering.
According to Sab senior vice president and business head Vikas Bhal, the inclusion of the X- element in the name simply refers to the undefinable something that makes for star quality. The big difference that has been incorporated into the second season of the show that aired last year on SET is that the contestants will not undergo any makeover.
Elaborating further, Bhal says that if the contestant auditions with a pair of slippers, his style will be retained. The effort will be to hone singing skills rather than presentation.
Among the other changes being rung into Fame X is that there will be only one winner rather than the jodi (couple) concept that was seen earlier. A big thing for the Fame X winner will be that he/she gets the honour of creating a song and singing for the cricket World Cup that will be held in the West Indies in March 2007.
The show will adapt to a more funky style and have an international look and feel. Unlike Fame Gurukul, which had an Indianised set-up of a music school, Fame X will remain true to the international version. Endemol, which owns the rights to the Spanish reality show Operacion Triunfo on which Fame X is based, will be managing the full production of the show. Production of the earlier Fame Gurukul was assigned to Miditech.
Operacion Triunfo has been adapted across 11 countries across three continents, and is seeing a fourth and fifth series in some territories.
This daily episode series will be spread across 13 weeks. The hunt for the contestants will kick off end of September. The auditions will be held in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahemedbad and Lucknow.
Bahl concludes that the channel has yet to come to a decision on the jury panel as well as the host of the show. SET’s Fame Gurukul had lyricist Javed Akhtar, singer KK and musician Shankar Mahadevan as the panel judges while singer Ila Arun was the strict headmistress of the music academy.
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.
