News Broadcasting
NBA expands television coverage with China deal
MUMBAI: The National Basketball Association (NBA) is rapidly expanding television coverage. It has signed deals in seven countries including China and Georgia. In India, NBA action airs on Star Sports.
NBA is looking to profit from the league’s growing international flavour, a Reuters report indicates. Television is the company’s first entry into any market. With the new deals, NBA action is available in 212 countries in 42 languages.
The report adds that other countries, with whom television deals have been signed include Brazil, Armenia, Poland and Lithuania. Existing television deals have been renewed in Japan, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Iceland and Germany. The China deals will place the NBA on 14 provincial networks.
Chinese Central Television (CCTV) will give the NBA access to all 314 million households in China.
In China, sports fans are increasingly becoming involved with basketball since a number of Chinese players are involved with the league. Chief among them is Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets’ Chinese center. While China is the market being looked at aggressively in Asia, Japan continues to be the biggest revenue driver in the region. This despite the fact that no Japanese player is in the NBA.
NBA commissioner David Stern adds, ”This is a huge potential market for us. When you look at the power of television and you look at the marketing and consumer product companies – from Toyota to Sony, Matsushita, you name it, you’re looking at an enormous amount of activity and potential activity. Probably we could be talking about hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.”
The NBA is also hoping to leverage local language programming into licensing and merchandise sales. Ultimately, the NBA hopes to become a global league, the report says.
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.
