News Broadcasting
NDTV looking to tap morning band, expand sports coverage
NEW DELHI: Having successfully established itself in both the English and Hindi language news markets, the two channels from the NDTV stable are now looking at tapping morning hours and genres like sports to create properties that would drive in more viewership.
“It’s surprising, but the morning time between 8-9 am, which has almost as much viewership as 8-9 pm, has still not been fully exploited by the industry,” NDTV managing editor Rajdeep Sardesai told indiantelevision.com in an interview today.
Though he did not divulge the exact nature of programming that would be unveiled by NDTV 24×7 and NDTV India to tap the morning segment more aggressively, Sardesai did admit that planning is on at the moment. “Watch the space for more information,” he jokingly said, adding that the thinking at this stage is to see what would be the right mix of morning programming for the Indian
According to Sardesai, in the West, especially in the US, the morning time band is treated like prime time and some of the highest paid anchors feature in the morning. “Now, should we also have news-dominated morning shows or not is something that the organisation is studying,” he added.
Quoting from industry data, Sardesai said that in the English news channel segment, NDTV 24×7 is far ahead of others with a market share of about 45 per cent with the nearest rival being CNBC-TV 18 with about half the market share of the NDTV channel.
“It’s quite satisfying to know that we are the market leaders (in the English news segment), but the idea is to have a dominant position that would be difficult to challenge,” Sardesai said, adding, “and this could be done only through the right mix of good programming and distribution, though it is difficult to create hot properties in the news genre (unlike entertainment).”
A step in the direction to create good properties is to try plug the areas where competition draws viewership away and in NDTV 24×7 one of the initiatives is to have predominantly business programming throughout the day till 4 pm to counter CNBC-TV 18’s viewer pulling powers.
However, Sardesai maintained that despite distribution’s growing importance in India too, revenue for the NDTV channels would principally be driven by advertising.
Another area that NDTV would be looking at tapping more aggressively is sports-related programming. “Sports is another genre that has huge potential even for news channels and we are aiming to do something in this area too,” Sardesai said.
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.
