News Broadcasting
Reliance Industries’ execs meet Network18 employees
MUMBAI: The Network18 office in Empire Mills Complex, in central Mumbai had some new visitors on 8 July 2014. Alok Agrawal who has been appointed as group COO of Network18, non-executive director Rohit Bansal and Reliance Industries Ltd’s media director Umesh Upadhyay held a town hall meeting with the entire staff of TV18 that includes CNN-IBN, IBN7, IBN Lokmat and History TV18.
Attendees say it was a feel-good meeting and to reassure the employees about RIL’s honorable intentions for them all. The employees were told that the megacorp has full faith in them and hence had invested in the Network18 group and the objective was to make it a global brand.
“There is no oil beneath your ground, if you are concerned about our motive,” is what one of them was heard to have said. Narrating an incident of the day founder Raghav Bahl finalised the deal, one of the members said, “Raghav on that day told the RIL executives that he had brought up the company to Rs 5000 crore and now you see if you can take it to Rs 50,000 crore.”
They were further told that going forward the road ahead would be shared with them. “It has been only 30 hours since the announcement of us acquiring Network18 has been made,” said one of them. “But you should know that 4G is very important for us as in the future smart phones are going to become very powerful. We are all happy that Raghav (Bahl) is continuing to give his support to the company.”
A similar meeting had taken place a day earlier with the employees in the head office in Delhi where special assurance was given to the CNBC TV-18 employees that “they need not fear publishing any story.” Employees in both places were told that they can even report about RIL but not publish stories without any facts.
One of the executives said that the main point in the whole RIL-Network18 deal was an exchange between two people (referring to Mukesh Ambani and Bahl) but everything else stays the same.
A source from RIL says that the exercise is being conducted so that employees are personally met and assured rather than have them believe false rumours through the media. A few more meetings are expected to be held in the coming days.
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.
