News Broadcasting
NDTV wins international recognition for news feature, engineering advance
MUMBAI: Dr Prannoy Roy’s NDTV has won recognition in two diverse streams of news channel activity.
NDTV’s investigative report “Education For Sale in Maharashtra, India” was Highly Commended in the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Broadcasting Awards 2004.
The report was entered in the category for the Award for Exceptional News Feature 2004.
The commendation went to NDTVs Sindhu Manesh, Anand Rao and Srikanth G. Rao who worked on the report. Using a hidden camera the team revealed that seats in top medical colleges were being sold for large amounts of money by state government ministers, politicians, principals and college registrars. The judges were impressed by the teams bravery, their meticulous research and the scale of the corruption revealed on film. A fallout of the report was the Supreme Court of India’s clamping down on the colleges.
The other front where NDTV has won laurels is from the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC).
The IBC Award for Cost Effective Engineering 2004 went to NDTV for a low cost satellite contribution and return path DSNG (digital satellite newsgathering) system. It replaces an existing service supplier, does not rely on third party operators and is resilient to poor power and telecom facilities.
The concept and design were by NDTVs systems manager, Rahul Deshpande and senior broadcast engineer Jay Chauhan and the project was executed by a team led by chief engineer, Jawahar Lal, deputy chief engineer, Dinesh Singh and producer Shayne P Singh among others.
A statement issued by NDTV says this is the first DSNG network relying entirely on MPEG-4 encoding.
The judges were Martin Salter, chairman of the IABM and IBC conference committee, Peter Owen, chairman of IBC Council, Mike Lumley, Royal Television Society, David Woods, EBU and the panel was chaired by Neil Dormand, CBA Technology Consultant.
The judging panel, while announcing the award, said they thought that the quality of the presentation from NDTV was excellent and that the achievement is a model to broadcasters in similar situations.
There was a detailed cost comparison of the chosen techniques against the alternatives, the NDTV statement says. Not only were technical difficulties overcome but also the outcome was very cost effective in terms of capital and operation.
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.
