News Broadcasting
Shankar plans shift to meaningful news on Star News
MUMBAI: News, probing and more meaningful, is Uday Shankar’s imminent agenda for the channel he now helms after the exit of channel president Ravina Raj Kohli. Star News will move into ‘some areas of news that need to be exploited’, he told indiantelevision.com in a recent interview. “We would like to examine rather than just report news…..”
Shankar’s plans mark a shift from the trend that news channels have been increasingly following for the past months. The former editor of development issues magazine Down to Earth and ex Aaj Tak news director plans to wean viewers away from the focus trained thus far on entertainment led shows and the glamour quotient. “We would like to raise the questions that come to people’s minds when they watch news. That itself can change the way news is done,” he avers.
While entertainment coverage will continue to be a part of the programming mix, Shankar says he would be ‘extremely wary’ of putting out too many shows in the same vein. Expect more of grassroots coverage, in-depth evaluation of issues that matter on Star News over the next few months, as a fresh team of nearly two dozen reporters and presenters have been groomed by Shankar. “My definition of news is something that makes an impact, by influencing the quality of life of people,” he says.
Another agenda that Shankar intends tackling is women viewers. “I think women are not being targeted enough and they are a very important segment of domestic decision makers. News impacts them, but the sources of information is quite limited in this country than the sources of information for men.” That would also imply taking news out of the clutches of prime time, as the former Aaj Tak news director puts it, and ‘inculcating the habit of anytime viewing’.
If the channel plans to turn a trifle serious in the coming day, Shankar is clear that Star News does not intend to sit in judgement over what viewers want, but insists that the channel will also “point out the other side to them too. We want to be a channel that parents would recommend for their children, a complete family channel, because we project the right values, we help inculcate a sense of good values, and we make a deference to the people’s quality of life.”
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.
