News Broadcasting
Star News to shift base to Delhi
MUMBAI: Star News is gearing up its Delhi operations with a view to sharpen its competitiveness that would herald a major shift in its functioning.
In the first phase of this game plan, which has been okayed by the management board in principle recently, the Delhi set-up will be beefed up in a way so that it could also function as the headquarters of the Hindi news channel.
According to Star News sources, the first phase could take up to six months time for completion.
Indiantelevision.com has learnt from a source that this gradual shifting of base to Delhi has got necessitated due to various reasons, including sourcing and nurturing of manpower for the Hindi news channel that primarily comes from North India.
The board of Media Content & Communications Services Pvt. Ltd (MCCS), which manages Star News and its Bengali sibling Star Ananda, has in principle given the green signal for this move taking into account various factors. MCCS is also setting up a committee that would look into the costing and feasibility of re-locating to Delhi.
However, the ad sales and marketing ops of Star News, which has been snapping at the heels of news market leader Aaj Tak from time to time, will stay put in Mumbai. Keeping in tune with this, it is expected that MCCS chief executive Uday Shankar will flit between Delhi and Mumbai as hes also involved in content creation on a daily basis.
MCCS is a 26:74 joint venture between the Rupert Murdoch-owned Star Group and the Kolkata-based Ananda Bazaar Patrika (ABP TV).
When Star News began afresh, after having severed content relationship with NDTV in 2003, it based its headquarters in Mumbai. Ravina Raj Kohli, the then president of the news channel, was heading a vision of creating an entity that would take on the likes of NDTV and Aaj Tak from Mumbai, which
is known more as the hub of Indias financial and entertainment activities.
Kohli had then pointed out that Star News, based in Mumbai with Delhi positioned as a super bureau, was modeled on Fox News in the US that is headquartered in New York, while Washington, the base for all political news and developments, served as a `super bureau.
At present, most news channels having national presence in India are based in and around Delhi from where most political and policy-level news emanate.
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.
