News Broadcasting
Hitch in Thaicom transponder affects Star News, etc, SS Music
MUMBAI: Star News faced a transponder problem late Sunday night, which was resolved only early this morning at 6 am. The news channel uplinks from India via the Thaicom transponder to the Asiasat 3 satellite.
The hitch was with the Thaicom transponder, which broke down late last night and being a weekend, took a while to get fixed. Shekhar Suman’s Poll Khol was the show that lost out as a result of this.
Star News uplinks through the Videsh Sanchar Nigam’s Ltd.’s gateway in Mumbai to an Insat satellite from where it would be downlinked at Star’s Hong Kong headquarters. The final product, in a digital format, would then be again uplinked to Asiasat 3 satellite for beam back into India and the neighbouring areas where it can be downlinked by MSOs and cable operators for further re-distribution.
Star News brand director Keertan Adhayantaya says, “Since it was a weekend, the problem took some time to get resolved. We usually have a back-up plan ready for such unforeseen problems. On our part, the effort is always such that the channel doesn’t get affected. But since it was a Sunday, it took longer.”
As a result of this break down, the news channel lost about an hour of advertising moolah, but Adhayantaya was confident that the channel would recover this loss in the next couple of days.
The other channels that were also affected by this were music channels etc and SS Music.
All the other Star channels uplink from Hong Kong as each sends in the programme tapes to the head office. Star News is the only channel on the Star Network that uplinks from India.
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.
