Network 18 Q3 FY26 Earnings Results

Network 18 Media & Investments is engaged in activities spanning across Digital Content, Print and Allied Businesses.

Q3 FY26 Earnings Results

Revenue from Operations: ₹500.4 crore, up 4.9% QoQ from ₹477.2 crore in Q2 FY26 and up 5.0% YoY from ₹476.4 crore in Q3 FY25.
Operating EBITDA: ₹11.8 crore, vs ₹7.4 crore in Q2 FY26 and ₹11.6 crore in Q3 FY25; EBITDA margin at 2.4%, improving 90 bps QoQ from 1.5%.
Operating Expenses: ₹488.6 crore, up 5.1% YoY in line with revenue growth.
Advertising environment: TV news industry advertising inventory demand declined by more than 10% YoY; Network18’s inventory decline was lower than industry, enabling outperformance in revenue.
9M FY26 performance: Revenue ₹1,408 crore, up 2.4% YoY; Operating EBITDA ₹23.4 crore, up 10.6% YoY despite last year’s high election‑driven base.

TV Network scale: Portfolio of 20 channels, including 14 regional channels; retains position as India’s largest TV news network.
All‑India TV viewership share: 14.2%, up 110 bps YoY; monthly reach over 230 million viewers, ~45% higher than the nearest competitor.

Channel leadership:

CNBC‑TV18: 43.1% share in business news.
News18 India: 13.2% share, leading Hindi news.
CNN‑News18: 36.1% share, leading English news.
Regional: Leadership in Marathi and Kannada; strong positions in West Bengal and key Hindi‑speaking regional markets.
Digital reach: Nearly 300 million monthly users, ~72% reach in digital news & information segment.
Digital video & social: >16 billion YouTube video views in Q3 (2.5x nearest competitor); 386 million total social media followers.
Moneycontrol: ~2x page views and >3x time spent vs closest rival; Moneycontrol Pro crosses 1 million paid subscribers, India’s largest digital news subscription platform.

Management highlighted resilient growth in operating revenue despite a sharp industry‑wide ad slowdown, driven by leadership across TV and digital and diversified language presence.
Operating EBITDA margin expansion QoQ was attributed to disciplined cost control and better utilisation even as expenses grew broadly in line with revenue.
Creator18 vertical: Expanded to 60+ exclusive creators; top 10 creators have >2 billion unduplicated reach, enabling campaigns for brands such as Swiggy, Samsung, OpenAI and Quillbot.
Content innovation: Launched first creator‑led TV show, “Viral Baat Raunac Ke Saath,” on News18 India to blend creator economy with broadcast reach.
CNN partnership renewal: 10‑year extension with CNN International; CNN‑News18 to expand digital footprint (YouTube, connected TV) to international markets, strengthening global audience reach.
Chairman Adil Zainulbhai: Emphasised that Network18 continues to “defy industry trends” with resilient performance in a weak macro environment and expressed confidence that government steps to boost consumption will benefit the company while it maintains focus on being India’s premier news destination.

Revenue from Operations: ₹477.2 crore, up 2.6% QoQ from ~₹463 crore in Q1 FY26 and up 7.2% YoY from ₹445.3 crore in Q2 FY25.
Operating Expenses: ₹469.8 crore in Q2 FY26.
Operating EBITDA: ₹7.4 crore vs ~₹4.5 crore in Q2 FY25; EBITDA margin at 1.5%, vs ~1.0% in Q2 FY25 and 1.6% in Q1 FY26.
Consolidated total income: ₹500.84 crore vs ₹478.01 crore in Q1 FY26.
Consolidated net profit: ₹40.68 crore vs profit ₹148.03 crore in Q1 FY26 and loss ₹95.84 crore in Q2 FY25, indicating a strong YoY turnaround though lower sequentially as exceptional income normalised.

Management noted that news‑business operating revenue grew 7% YoY despite around 7% YoY decline in TV news industry inventory demand, driven by stronger yields and better inventory utilisation.
Cost discipline and operating leverage enabled a swing from consolidated loss in Q2 FY25 to profit in Q2 FY26, even as the ad environment remained challenging.
Portfolio actions: Strengthened regional footprint, including acquiring the remaining stake in News18 Lokmat to deepen presence in key markets.
Digital strategy: Continued investment in digital news and streaming platforms and tighter integration between TV and digital newsrooms to capture the ongoing shift in consumption while leveraging TV leadership.
These Q2 initiatives in revenue growth, cost control and portfolio optimisation laid the foundation for the sequential improvement in revenue and margin seen in Q3 FY26.

To view the company’s previous earnings and latest concall transcripts, click here to visit the Alphastreet India news channel.