Cable TV
MIPTV selects 24 finalists for ‘Content 360’ competition
MUMBAI: The world’s audiovisual and digital content market MIPTV featuring MILIA announced the 24 finalists for the inaugural ‘Content 360’ international digital commissioning competition.
Of these finalists, the six winning projects chosen on 6 April, will share €80,000 in development funding.
Sponsored by Vodafone and organized in partnership with the BBC, the Korean Broadcasting Commission (KBC) and the National Film Board of Canada, Content 360 is a new initiative to commission innovative content and interactive applications for mobile and broadband.
Launched on 17 January 2006, the inaugural Content 360 attracted 181 entries from 120 companies and 23 countries. “The number of entries underlines the need to provide development funding for projects which are embracing user demand for new kinds of content and services in a digital, multi-platform world,” notes MILIA director Ted Baracos. “What’s been especially welcome has been the extraordinary quality of the projects, which has made the initial selection of the 24 finalists very hard.”
The finalists are competing in six separate categories :
– Long Tail Content: Navigating the BBC Archive. BBC digital commissioners will choose the project which makes best use of BBC archives on new platforms.
– Animation Projects for Mobile Platforms: The National Film Board of Canada will select an innovative mobile animation project for co-production. The judges will also take into consideration production and distribution business models.
– Web 2.0: Next Generation Collaborative Web Concepts. Blogs, feed readers, social networks, P2P, audio and video podcasting… In the digital world, everyone is a creator and a distributor. The BBC will select the most innovative project in this field.
– DMB -Digital Multimedia Broadcasting: Mobile Content and Applications: This category is designed to reward content innovation specific to mobile TV broadcasting.
– Rich Media-Made for Mobile: The BBC will judge the best proposal for rich media which pushes the boundaries for mobile content experiences.
– Total Mobile & User-Generated Mobile Content: BBC digital commissioners will select the best idea which marries user-generated content with interactivity between the user and the content distributor.
In conjunction with the competition, Content 360 will have a dedicated pavilion within MIPTV featuring MILIA providing networking opportunities and a showcase for the finalists.
MUMBAI: When margins wobble, liquidity talks and in Q3 FY25-26, cash did most of the talking. Den Networks Limited closed the December quarter with consolidated revenue of Rs.251 crore, marginally higher than the previous quarter but down 4 per cent year-on-year, even as profitability stayed resilient on the back of strong cash reserves and disciplined cost control.
Subscription income softened to Rs.98 crore, slipping 3 per cent sequentially and 14 per cent from last year, while placement and marketing income offered some cheer, rising 15 per cent quarter-on-quarter to Rs.148 crore. Total costs climbed faster than revenue, up 7 per cent QoQ to Rs.238 crore, driven largely by higher content costs and operating expenses. As a result, EBITDA dropped sharply to Rs.13 crore from Rs.19 crore in Q2 and Rs.28 crore a year ago, pulling margins down to 5 per cent.
Yet, the bottom line refused to blink. Profit after tax stood at Rs.40 crore, up 15 per cent sequentially and only marginally lower than last year’s Rs.42 crore. A healthy Rs.57 crore in other income helped cushion operating pressure, keeping profit before tax at Rs.48 crore, broadly stable quarter-on-quarter despite the tougher cost environment.
The real headline-grabber, however, sits on the balance sheet. The company remains debt-free, with cash and cash equivalents swelling to Rs.3,279 crore as of December 31, 2025. Net worth rose to Rs.3,748 crore, while online collections accounted for 97 per cent of total receipts, underscoring strong cash discipline across operations, including subsidiaries.
In short, while Q3 showed signs of operating strain, the financial backbone remains solid. With zero gross debt, steady profits and a formidable cash war chest, the company enters the next quarter with flexibility firmly on its side proving that in uncertain markets, balance sheet strength can be the best growth strategy.
