News Broadcasting
Ten Sports claims excellent ratings for WWE programming
MUMBAI: Fresh off a World Wrestling Entertainment event in India after a gap of six years which met with an excellent response, Ten Sports, which commenced operations in India earlier this year, claims to have stolen a march over arch rival ESPN Star Sports thanks to WWE programming.
Programmes air everyday on the channel with the exception of Sunday at 5 pm and 10:30 pm. The blocks include Raw, Smackdown!, Heat. Quoting TAM ratings for all of India in the c&s 4+ category for the period 20 October to 16 November, the channel claims that average time spent in the time band 5 pm for continous viewing over five minutes is 28 minutes and for the 10:30 pm band is 23 minutes. ESPN’s share at 5 pm is three minutes while Star Sports’ share is just over five minutes. ESS fares marginally better in the 10:30 pm band with average time spent being 10 minutes, Ten claims.
For continous viewing of over five minutes in the 5 pm band the average reach is 3 per cent for Ten Sports. For ESPN it is a mere 0.5 per cent and for Star Sports it is 1.3 per cent. In the 10:30 pm band the reach increases to 3.3 per cent. For ESPN it is 1.3 per cent and for Star Sports it is 1.8 per cent.
While Ten Sports may be claiming succes in increasing viewer cachet through wrestling, in the US it is on a steady downswing. An Associated Press report states that average viewership so far this season for RAW is 3.1 million households, down 14 per cent from 3.6 million last season, 20 per cent from 2000 and 35 per cent from the 1999 season. The AP report quotes figures from Nielsen Media Research. SmackDown! has suffered a similar decline.
A major reason for the decline could be that fatigue with the excessive soap opera storylines dealing with alleged homosexuality, fake marriages and their ilk has set in. Ratings have also been affected by the fact that top personalities like Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock are not there at the moment due to different reasons. In addition, although recent legal problems like a sexual harrasement lawsuit were resolved in favour of the WWE, they generated plenty of negative publicity.
Coming back to Ten Sports. The channel is planning to air live Indian horse racing for the first time on Indian television from this month. 60 races will be spread across 20 weeks. Watch this space for further details.
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.
