News Broadcasting
Sun TV’s Kavitha Jaubin joins Arha media-owned Aha as VP content & strategy- Tamil
Mumbai: Sun TV veteran Kavitha Jaubin has joined Arha media-owned Aha as VP of content & strategy-Tamil. Jaubin confirmed the development to Indiantelevision.com over a call. Jaubin led the content and brand integration at Sun TV, where she served a stint of over 15 years.
Indiantelevision.com broke the news of the media veteran putting in her papers at the Kalanithi Maran-owned network last month.
ALSO READ |Sun TV veteran Kavitha Jaubin quits
Aha is an OTT player owned by Arha Media & Broadcasting, a joint venture between Geetha Arts and real estate business group My Home Group, which offers original content in Telugu and Tamil languages. After establishing itself as the one-stop destination for Telugu-speaking viewers globally, the OTT player forayed into the Tamil market late last year, following its debut in March 2020.
At Sun TV, the Chennai-based Jaubin handled several challenging assignments, having joined the network in August 2007 as head of Kids Channels (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam). She took on the additional responsibility of cluster head-content acquisition at the broadcaster.
Jaubin took over the mantle of head of Sun Life, the network’s second general entertainment channel, in 2011 for nine years before taking up her final stint at the broadcaster as head of content and brand integration in February 2020.
Prior to Sun TV, she served a brief stint as executive producer at 92.7 BIGFM.
Early on in her career, she even donned a creative hat as writer-director at Star India’s Star Vijay Television for four years.
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.
