News Broadcasting
NDTV ends ad sales outsourcing deal with Star
MUMBAI: New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) has decided to end its advertising sales outsourcing arrangement with Star India for the news business, after allowing the Rupert Murdoch company to handle it from 1 April 2011.
NDTV’s ad sales revenue in 2011-12 remained flat at Rs 2.62 billion in a fiscal that witnessed slowdown in the economy.
“We have managed ad sales of our lifestyle channel NDTV Good Times, convergence and other smaller businesses successfully. Star has assisted us in transitioning the team. We see it as a positive step,” NDTV executive vice-chairman KVL Narayan Rao told Indiantelevision.com.
NDTV will take its sales and marketing destiny into its own hands from Star India and the transition process has already begun. The Star sales team that was working on the NDTV channels — NDTV 24X7, NDTV Profit and NDTV India — will be transferred to NDTV.
The transfer of sales team from Star to NDTV will ensure close integration with a number of fresh initiatives that NDTV is launching. Under NDTV Lifestyle Holdings, NDTV and joint venture partner Astro plan to launch a slew of niche channels in the lifestyle genre. NDTV Good Times is already a profitable channel.
“Now that the (NDTV sales) team is ready and NDTV wishes to take charge of its own destiny, we amicably agreed to exit.” said Star India CEO Uday Shankar.
NDTV’s executive co-chairperson Prannoy Roy said, “Working together with Star has been a great experience.”
NDTV in its 2011-12 annual report said 2011 was a challenging year for the television broadcasting industry with pressure on advertising rates and total television ad market estimated to have grown by around 12 per cent during the year, less than the projected growth of 15 per cent.
The challenges are going to stay as the ad market continues to be sluggish. “In the short run, NDTV will have to bear the cost of running its own ad sales team. And posting ad revenue growth in a tough market would always be a challenge,” a media analyst said.
Prior to Star, NDTV’s ad sales duties were handled by Raj Nayak-promoted Aidem Ventures. The broadcaster did not renew the deal with Aidem in March 2011 and instead turned to Star India.
NDTV had outsourced its ad sales to Aidem Ventures for one year, after Nayak quit as CEO of NDTV Media to float his own company. NDTV had bought back Nayak and his team’s 26 per cent stake in NDTV Media, a company that was handling the ad sales of the broadcasting company.
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.
