News Broadcasting
Network18 Media shuffles senior management
MUMBAI: Reliance Industries group company Network18 has made some senior management changes, which it made public through a regulatory filing on the Bombay stock exchange on 12 October 2024.
Shweta Gupta has been appointed as company secretary and compliance officer, replacing Nitten Gupta as the compliance officer who moved out of Network18 on 12 October 2024.
Sanchayan Paul has also been roped in as chief human resource officer who will join Network18 from 1 November 2024. He replaces P. Sakthivel who will be moving into another role within the company from 31 October 2024. The company had made the announcement of Sachayan’s joining as CHRO designate in June 2024.
Gupta is a qualified company secretary & law graduate with more than 20 years’ experience in the areas of secretarial, corporate governance, legal and compliance functions. Her last posting was as company secretary & compliance officer & legal head of Gulf Oil Lubricants India, a Hinduja group company. Before Gulf, she was associated with Hindalco Industries and JSW Steel.
A graduate from Delhi university and a postgraduate from XLRI Jamshedpur, Sanchayan is a a veteran HR professional with more than 25 years’ experience. He was previously associated with Modenik Lifestyle, a PE-backed enterprise that he landed into after journeying through companies as varied as Reliance Industries, Thomson Reuters, Eicher Consulting Services, Hutchison Essar Telecom and Vodafone. He also took a stab at entrepreneurship, founding KaryaMitr, a tech-enabled platform for skill building and training aimed at the vernacular workspace. Sanchayan has also completed his digital business leadership pogramme from Cornell University.
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.
