News Broadcasting
Sunny Pal Dhillon is the winner of Channel7’s ‘Scorpio Speedster 2005’
MUMBAI: Channel7 has announced the winner of its reality cricket show Scorpio Speedster 2005. Sunny Pal Dhillon, 21 years old college student is the winner.
The hunt spanning five months conducted across 10 cities received participation from around 50,000 aspirants.The international cricketer Wasim Akram of Pakistan and ex-captain of Indian cricket team Ajay Jadeja adjudged the hunt and finally found the new pace bowling sensation for the country in a young Delhi lad, informs an official release.
Apart from a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh the winner also gets a one season’s training with MRF Pace Foundation, India’s premier fast bowling institute at Chennai. Sabir Ali from Kolkata and Parvinder Awaana from Delhi are first and second runners up respectively.
The seven finalists of the hunt were judged on multiple parameters like accuracy, endurance, and adaptability in bowling and overall cricketing ability. The winner Sunny Pal Dhillon measured 135 kmph at the speed gun to beat thousands of competitors from across the country irrespective of being injured. His grit to win was an essential factor, which helped him score over other finalists and overcome his injury to emerge as the winner, adds the release.
Announcing the winner of the Scorpio Speedster 2005, Channel7 director Siddhartha Gupta, “Scorpio speedster 2005 was Channel7’s endeavor to give aspiring Indian bowlers a platform to showcase their talent and eventually get a chance to fulfill their dreams of playing for the country. We were confident of Channel7’s fantastic production team, creative storytelling expertise and furthering Channel7’s commitment to innovative non-fiction programming, and therefore we decided to create India’s first reality cricket show. The idea was not just to find who can bowl the fastest delivery in the nation, but to give India a true speed demon, a potential cricketing icon, a complete fast bowler.”
Besides Wasim Akram and Ajay Jadeja, Jhonty Rhodes of South Africa was also roped in to test the fielding skills of the aspiring quicks. Indian cricketers of repute like Mohamed Azharuddin, Vinod Kambli, Saurav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, V.V.S Laxman, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Kirti Azad, and many other were also a witness to this gala competition
Some of the very positive outcomes of Scorpio Speedster were that Sabir Ali, one of the finalists and also this year’s first runner’s up was invited by none other than ex- Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly for the net practice in Kolkata. He is likely to secure a place in West Bengal’s Ranji team. Also, another of the seven finalists Munis Ansari, winner from Gwalior, caught the eye of Greg Chappel, India’s coach & was called up for net practice with the entire Indian team at Wankhere Stadium, Mumbai. He is also likely to secure a place in Madhya Pradesh’s Ranji team
Scorpio Speedster was a five months exhaustive search, which identified the best 15 pacers who made it to the semi-finals in Mumbai. Of these, the fastest seven made it to the finals. The other finalists included Pawan Singh from Chandigarh, Vinod Sadhu from Ahmedabad, Abhishek Jagan from Bangalore, and Munis Ansari from Gwalior.
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.
