News Broadcasting
Zee presses revamp button…yet again!!!!
The Zee Group, in a major restructuring bid as advised by AT Kearney, has brought all of its diverse activities and businesses under four broad categories – content, corporate, access and education. The company’s three lead businesses of content, access and education will have separate heads while support functions like strategy, human resources, finance, legal, corporate communications and marketing research will be handled by the head of corporate services.
At a lengthy open house meeting in Mumbai yesterday, company chairman Subhash Chandra and heads of businesses along with AT Kearney, elucidated the entire structure and strategy of the company, which they claimed, was to ensure a vision for a common pursuit, purpose and goal. In the new dispensation, Alok Dutta, Chief Operating Officer, will be coordinating the content businesses. He will oversee broadcasting, including the businesses of all the Zee Network channels, portals, music, news and sports. Dutta will report directly to Chandra.
R.K. Singh, who was the Chief Executive Officer and earlier responsible for all broadcasting has been designated Group Head of Corporate Services. He will additionally be overseeing international businesses that have been clubbed under the access environment.
Dev Naganand will head the access business which comprises all the distribution driven businesses, including the businesses of cable networking now renamed Home Networking (HN), Direct-to-Operators (DTO), Direct-to-Home (DTH), Internet ISP through cable and numerous other Internet and ISP driven businesses.
The fourth division, the company’s education business will continue to be headed by Uma Ganesh. Zee, the management points out, sees a distinct convergence potential in the education business so will be developing it accordingly.
A pro-active team for functions of finance and accounts, personnel, legal, planning and operations at the operative level will also support each Group Head.
Besides the restructuring of the organisation, AT Kearney has also recommended that Zee should focus on building some new core competencies into the organisation, with special emphasis on collaboration with outsiders, more external focus on learning from customers, competitors and partners, greater focus on employment development, more systematic resource-based management and greater transparency in dealing with shareholders, employees, etc.
The restructure also highlights the company’s new vision of ‘network selling’ as opposed to ‘single channel’ selling. While in the past, Zee emphasised on selling channels as individual single channels, today, in its new structure synchronised with this strategy, more emphasis will be on ‘network selling’. The Zee Group, says it, will reorganise according to the AT Kearney structure immediately.
The management says that it is confident that the spotlight on the new structure will bring increased focus in the company’s approach to content creation, on the one hand and distribution, on the other, even as corporate services seeks to foster alliances with new partners and collaboration with business constituents with greater zeal and gusto.
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.
