News Broadcasting
NDTV wins Commonwealth innovative engineering award for record 5th time
NEW DELHI: NDTV Labs Ltd was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Broadcasting Association or the CBA award for ‘Innovative Engineering’ and NDTV’s Features Editor Sutapa Deb was honoured with the prestigious ‘CBA-Thomson Foundation Journalist of the Year’ at the CBA’s Broadcasting Awards for 2008 presented in Nassau, Bahamas.
NDTV Labs set an unprecedented record for media houses by winning this award for the fifth time in six years. NDTV Labs also took the opportunity to launch the nX series of software products at the Conference at the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association’s Broadcasting Awards for 2008.
Sutapa Deb who won the CBA – Thomson Foundation Journalist of the Year award is the driving force behind India’s pioneering television series, India Matters. This rare series engages viewers with development issues at a time when most TV channels are catering to politics, cricket and films.
About her work, Sutapa says: “There are thousands of stories waiting to be told. Often I wish there was a little less cynicism and a lot more idealism. Stories come and go before people can understand the context and because of this we have failed to deepen our understanding about a
number of vital issues that face our society. Each story is important, and must be well told”.
Some of Sutapa’s path breaking reports include Banker to the Poor and India’s Coming Out. The most recent series is on positive children who are neglected by the system. Her report looks at the lack of institutions for HIV orphans.
Apart from the CBA-Thomson Foundation journalist award, Sutapa is the recipient of the Indian Telly Award for the best documentary of the year for her documentary Unsung Heroes of the Gujarat Earthquake, 2002 and the Ramnath Goenka award for excellence in journalism in 2006.
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.
