News Broadcasting
Pradesh18.com foresees growth in female audience share
MUMBAI: Network18’s local news portal Pradesh18.com has seen a rapid growth in its user base. The digital destination claims to have more than 10 million unique users in last month and focuses on state-wise news in various regional languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Urdu. More languages are to be added such as Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam.
The primary growth of Pradesh18.com has come from its Hindi language portal.
As a changing trend, a lot of content is being consumed through mobile devices and that has added to the growth of the portal facilitating any content, anywhere. Complementary to major growth coming from mobile medium, 74 per cent of its audience are young readers below the age of 34 while 26 per cent are above the age of 40. Though the audience is fairly dominated by males but female share is growing and is at 17 per cent as per October numbers.
Network18 Digital CEO Manish Maheshwari attributes the success of Pradesh18.com to the product’s unique & single minded proposition to cater to the news & happenings of reader’s locality, district, city and state. He said, “Pradesh18.com is a platform to provide news at district level to its readers & in the language in which one prefers. We aspire to cover India inch by inch. Digital growth will come from vernacular languages and through mobile medium and Pradesh18.com is uniquely poised to benefit from both these factors.”
Pradesh18.com also contains high quality video news content and live TV content of popular ETV channels in respective states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Haryana.
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.
