News Broadcasting
RAPA awards to be held on 20 May
MUMBAI: Radio and Television Advertising Practitioners’ Association of India (RAPA) is all set to stage its 31st Annual awards for excellence on 20 May at St. Andrews Auditorium, Bandra, Mumbai.
RAPA has been honouring and encouraging creative excellence for over 30 years. This is the only association in the country which encompasses all Indian languages and English and gives as much importance to radio as television.
Entries have come in from all over the country and judging has been completed. The panel of judges include Ameen Sayani, Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi, Rinki Bhattacharya, Karuna Samtani, Ramesh Deo, Manjul Sinha, Javed Siddiqi, Pushpa Bharati, Sandesh Shandilya Anil Ganguli, Jyoti Venkatesh, Gufi Paintal and Nandita Puri to name a few.
The winners list does not compromise of work from metros only, people from small towns have also made a mark, informs an official release.
This year also happens to be the 100 year of Radio coming into existence. RAPA says that it salutes those who had faith in radio and did not desert it when boom in the television industry made most people comment that radio was dying and it was a matter of time before radio would be forgotten.
The association states that all the who’s who of the entertainment industry will be there to felicitate and be felicitated.
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.
