News Broadcasting
Times Internet’s M360 partners with Google to enable effective monetization for digital publishers
M360, Times Internet’s turnkey publishing and monetization platform for publishers, has partnered with Google as a Google Ad Manager partner. M360 will now be able to monetize publisher inventory using the Google Ad Manager platform. Times and Google have a long standing partnership on Google Ad Manager.
Made in India, M360 is a complete hosting and monetization platform that has quickly scaled up and now serves 25 Million MAUs outside of the Times Internet group. Apart from Google Ad Manager, M360 also leverages Times Internet’s homegrown premium ad-network, Colombia Audience Network, to provide leading advertisers and agencies to achieve performance for their marketing objectives at scale across a wide variety of ad formats and audience segments.
Speaking on what this partnership means for M360 and Google, Puneet Gupt, COO – Times Internet said, “M360 aims to bring technological advancements in digital publishing to the smallest of the publishers allowing them to focus on bringing great content to their readers. We are happy to join hands with Google to provide enhanced monetization capabilities to Indian publishers on the M360 platform”
“We’ve been working very closely with the Google team since the inception of M360 platform 8 months ago and this partnership is a testament of the strong synergy in building a comprehensive publishing platform for publishers who are looking to scale their revenues and engage their users. Our product has become a de facto platform for publishers looking to create, monetize and engage their readership through a seamless ad and content experiences across all platforms” said Arjun Satya, Co-founder – M360.
“We have had a strong partnership with Times across multiple areas, and today we’re excited to be extending it even further. We hope this initiative will inspire other publishers to build on their digital journey, so that together we can grow the digital publisher ecosystem in India,” said Ryu Hirayama, Director and Head of APAC Partnership Solutions, Google.
M360’s hosting and CMS helps media organizations create a fast loading, non-intrusive ad and content portal which leads to higher CPMs for the same ad inventory. M360 runs over a state-of-the-art personalization engine, giving publishers an edge to engage and retain their audiences. This personalization engine leverages billions of combinations across 60k user attributes to recommend the best possible content and ads, all in real-time. M360 has also launched an integrated push notifications and newsletter management service for publishers to engage with their users effectively. Publishers shifting from their current hosting to M360 platform have seen anywhere from 30% to 160% lift their Page CPM within a few weeks of migrating from traditional hosting solutions.
With COVID-19 reducing ad revenue for publishers, M360’s partnership with Google for deploying Google Ad Manager will help publisher owners on M360 scale their revenues while incurring zero engineering and IT costs by paying a small subscription fee for M360 platform for hosting and CMS for fast-loading personalized sites.
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.
