News Broadcasting
Star Vijay to celebrate Kamal Hassan’s birthday
MUMBAI: If the Hindi Entertainment channels go ballistic over Big B’s birthday celebration, its time for the Tamil entertainment channel Star Vijay to turn on the camera for Tamil superstar Kamal Hassan’s birthday.
Star’s Tamil Entertainment channel has special plans to celebrate Hassan’s 49th Birthday today.
Winner of over three National Awards and 10 Filmfare awards, an actor-director-writer-producer Kamal Hassan has been awarded the Padmashree title. While he has over 200 films to his credit, he achieved a sort of stardom at the young age of three. He won the President’s gold medal for the best child artiste in the first film.
In a bid to build up the relations with the film industry, Vijay TV has slotted a wide array of special programs on the channel, from dawn to dusk, to celebrate the remarkable actor’s birthday, says a company release.
At 8:30am in the morning, Star’s Tamil channel started off the day long celebration with Hello Thamizha. The audience got a chance to wish Hassan live on his birthday, beside the programme featured some of Hassan’s hit songs and unforgettable scenes.
Throughout the day, the channel will be airing special fillers detailing the milestones in the actor’s life. Beside that there channel is flashing birthday wishes to the star all day long.
At 2:00 pm in the movie slotVelli Thirai, Kamal’s memorable silent comedy film Pesum Padam, which was dubbed as Pushpak for the Hindi Audience, starring himself alongside Amala will be featured on the channel.
Whilst the celebrations are on, the highlight of the day is Naayagan at 9:30pm, a one hour slot where Hassan will be sharing his life with the audience. Hassan will take the viewers through some known and some lesser-known episodes in his life, like the part where he worked as a barber in a saloon near his house.
Besides Hassan sharing his life, the programme will also showcase his dear and near ones like brother Charu Hassan, Balu Mahendra, K.Balachander, AVM Saravanan, R.C. Shakti talking about their memorable moments with him.
The channel, to wrap up the day, has a a special mock telephonic interview segment Saghalai vs Raghalai scheduled to air at 10.30 pm, which will showcases his career’s best comedy scenes.
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.
