News Broadcasting
Perform Group’s Omnisport to start services in Indian languages
NEW DELHI: Omnisport, Perform Group’s market-leading global sports news and content agency, is all set to enhance its offering in India by adding three Indian languages — Hindi, Bengali and Malyalam — highlighting its rising commitment to India and the market’s importance to the company’s global strategy.
To begin with, Omnisport, which is the video and editorial wire service from UK-headquartered Perform Group’s vast sports content library, will start off by offering short form sports videos relating to football, cricket and, possibly, an indigenous game in the three Indian languages.
Going forward, Omnisport is also exploring setting up a production facility in Mumbai by year end or early 2018 to widen its coverage and presence in the Indian market, which is fairly limited at present.
Once the Mumbai production facility is up and running, the Omnisport services offered to clients in India will build greater relevance for Indian publishers and have increased coverage of Indian domestic sports, including the likes of kabaddi.
Over the next 12-18 months, Perform Group is looking at investing approximately Rs 50 million in India, which may look — and definitely is — small, but is a sure sign of the Sussex company looking at expanding its presence in India where football is getting a growing audience (while Indian national team’s global ranking is nothing to crow about, football enjoyed upwards of 50 million conversations involving fans from India last year). Nearly 60 per cent of the content handled by Perform Group globally comprises football.
Some of the clients of Perform Group in India include The Hindu group, The Hindustan Times, Veqta and a leading sports portal in India.
Omnisport works with most of the leading global sports broadcasters and digital publishers, including beIN Sports, ESPN, DirecTV, Yahoo, Eurosport, Fox Sports Asia, BBC Sport, Sky Sports, BT Sport, Malaysia’s Astro, L’Equipe and Diario AS.
Focusing on the world’s biggest sports stories, Omnisport offers clients high-quality digital sports video in 15 languages at present. The service includes breaking news, match action and content enriched with category-leading Opta sports data, together with up-to-the minute editorial content, including reports, news, exclusive interviews, features, data-enhanced editorial and live blogs. Omnisport’s newsgathering network extends to more than 250 specialist journalists on 12 international news desks, and a larger network of stringers.
According to Wikipedia, Perform Group was created in September 2007 through the merger of two businesses — Premium TV Limited, a provider of web and mobile solutions to the sports sector, and the Inform Group, a digital sports rights agency. The businesses were rebranded PERFORM in January 2008 under the leadership of current Chief Executive Officer Simon Denyer, and former joint CEO Oliver Slipper.
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.
