News Broadcasting
Napster launches digital music service in Germany
MUMBAI: Digital music brand Napster has launched its digital music service across Germany.
Napster Germany positions itself as the first and only subscription music service available to music fans across the region. German residents can download Napster for free at www.napster.de, where they can also sign up for a free seven-day trial of the service.
The launch of Napster Germany follows the completion of agreements with the country’s major record labels, as well as over 150 independent labels. These agreements allow Napster to deliver more than 125,000 albums — including 20,000 German albums — and music from over 600,000 artists — including 135,000 local acts — spanning all genres,
including rock, pop, hip-hop, R&B, classical and jazz.
Napster Germany features over 1.5 million songs and offers both the Napster subscription service as well as the Napster To Go portable subscription service. German music fans can also purchase songs and albums a la carte from the Napster Light download store, where they can also listen to free 30-second samples of all the songs in the Napster catalogue.
Napster chairman and CEO Chris Gorog says, “Napster is very pleased to bring the biggest brand in on-line music to the number one music market in Continental Europe. We believe German music fans will be very excited to see where we have taken the original genius of Napster and expanded on the ideas of unlimited music discovery and sharing.”
Napster Germany VP, GM Thorsten Schliesche says, “It is very exciting for Napster to bring the first flat rate music service to Germany as we believe this will soon be the preferred experience for digital music fans. A flat rate for unlimited music discovery is a much greater value than 99 euro cents downloads and is quite simply a lot more fun.”
Napster Germany already claims to have a number of business partnerships with brands, including Germany’s consumer electronics goods retailer, MakroMart; Trekstor, the biggest MP3 player manufacturer, which is bundling its i.beat reload player with a six-month Napster To Go subscription in retail outlets across the country; and television broadcaster SAT1, with which it has an exclusive music service partnership.
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.
