News Broadcasting
SeaChange to help ESS go Hindi end August
Sportscaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has selected SeaChange International’s Broadcast MediaCluster video server system for on-air delivery of television programming to viewers in 25 countries including India.
Over 360 hours of broadcast material will be stored on the stand-alone video server system and it will deliver eight regional television channels in English, Hindi, Mandarin and Cantonese. ESPN Star Sports’ Broadcast MediaCluster deployment will be live at the end of August, says an official release.
ESS says it chose Broadcast MediaCluster on the basis of around-the-clock reliability, simple expandability and unique storage protection. More than 500 field staff throughout Asia capture sports content for ESS network programming, which emanates from a 60,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art production and transmission facility in Singapore. Here, SeaChange’s Broadcast MediaCluster takes the role of on-air server. The operator has also taken on board a new Encoda Automation system, which has been integrated with SeaChange video server systems in customer deployments around the world.
SeaChange’s Broadcast MediaClusters are comprised of `server nodes,’ which leverage it’s patented RAID2 (“raid squared”) architecture to scale gracefully in storage and I/O capacity, while providing the only single copy, 100% fault-resilient video server in the broadcast market. ESPN Star Sports’ choice, the Broadcast MediaCluster 1650 series, uses as many as 16 disk drives per server node and delivers over 40 I/Os in a seven-node configuration.
Says ESS director of engineering Andy Rylance, “Singapore is a hotbed of technologically advanced television operations that reach out across Asia. Through numerous noteworthy deployments here, SeaChange and its partner Magna Systems have earned a solid reputation for cost-performance and local service. We surveyed a number of approaches for our on-air content playback and SeaChange’s Broadcast MediaCluster really came out strongest on our top criteria – the ability to withstand any frame failure without any extended interruption to our services.”
SeaChange International claims to be the world leader in digital video systems that are changing television.
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.
