News Broadcasting
Recreate Solutions joins IBM consortium for IPTV
MUMBAI: Recreate Solutions, a London-based company floated by ex-Zee employee Bhaskar Majumdar, is part of a consortium led by IBM bidding for IPTV projects in the Asia Pacific region.
The consortium has expressed intent to participate in developing a content delivery platform for state owned MTNL’s plan to roll out triple play – voice, data and video services.
VSNL is the other telecom giant in which the consortium has expressed intent to bid. Other players in the consortium are Seachange, Orca & Widevine. While Seachange will provide hardware, video sourcing & set- top box solutions. Orca will handle the middleware platform for IPTV. Widevine will look after conditional access system (CAS) and digital rights management. Recreate Solutions will provide technology for multi-player gaming & system integration solutions.
“IBM has invited us into a consortium for participating in the IPTV bid in the Asia Pacific region. We provide solutions to various interactive channel operators, video on demand service providers and broadcasters. We have built multi-player gaming engine on IPTV platforms,” says Recreate Solutions vice president, Ved Sen.
Recreate Solutions is already working with AssetHouse as an implementation partner in the UK. AssetHouse has won a contract from Britsh Telecom which plans to roll out IPTV in mid 2006. The company is also doing product development work for Espial, a company which specialises in browser solutions on the set top boxes.
In the interactive TV space, Recreate Solutions is also into gaming application solutions and is a technology partner for Yoo Media. The company is building applications for Yahoo Media’s Avago gaming channel.
Recreate Solutions is doing development work for Visiware, the largest game publishers on the interactive TV space .Exit Games, a gaming engine provider is also Recreate Solutions’ client.
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.
