News Broadcasting
It’s Gauri vs Saloni as Star Plus slots KAA for 9:30 pm; to launch on 29 August
MUMBAI: The stage is set for another interesting contest in the Hindi GEC battlefield. In a significant move, Star Plus has decided to wind up Kavyanjali and replace the soap with another Balaji Telefilms production Karam Apnaa Apnaa (KAA).
Slotted for 9:30 pm, Monday to Thursday, KAA will lock horns with Zee TV’s driver show Saat Phere.
Star Plus will launch KAA on 29 August. According to Star India senior creative director Shailja Kejriwal, the channel will use the soap, which will have as its principal characters Bengalis, to target Eastern India.
“We have lots of soaps targeting Gujarat and Punjab, but nothing for the East. We are filling this void with KAA. The story has a Kolkata backdrop and the look and feel is very much Bengali. Then, we have many Bengali artists, including Roopa Ganguly and Jaya Bhattacharya, featuring in the serial,” says Kejriwal.
Another strategy Star Plus is initiating with KAA is to reach out to the young audience during the launch phase itself. Accordingly, the marketing wing of Star India has devised various marketing activities and one of these is to hype up the lead character’s marriage.
“We understand that the youth audience plays a significant role in the success of a television programme in India. Hence, we are making our best attempts to woo them during the first phase of our launch itself. We are trying to reach the youth in the age group of 20-28 through various activities woven around Gauri’s (the protagonist) wedding,” says Satya Raghavan of Star India Marketing.
Explaining the strategies further, Raghavan adds, “Over the next three months, we will be constantly in touch with young people through various touch points. We will get in touch with them through various methods – all connected to the marriage process. These include wedding shopping, venue search and astrology. The activities will be conducted in a sustained manner, to make the most of the upcoming marriage season.”
KAA will also see Balaji offering another debutant to Indian television. The new face Pallavi Subhash will don the title role of Gauri. The star cast also includes Apra Mehta, Salil Ankola, Delnaz Paul and Geetanjali Tikekar.
KAA tells the story of Gauri who hails from a small hamlet of West Bengal. She is a very simple girl without any ambition, who has put the interests of her family before herself and has dedicated her life to make her father and her sister happy. The only dream she has is that after marriage, she should live a simple and happy life with her husband and her kids. Gauri is on the threshold of turning her dream into reality by getting married to her fiance, Shashank, but she could never have imagined that destiny has something different in store for her. And thereafter starts the journey of this simple girl, of the hardships she faces and how she strives to overcome them.
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.
