Network18 news business revenue grows 5% to Rs 500 crore in Q3 FY26 amid ad slowdown

At a time when advertising inventory demand for the TV news industry declined by over 10% YoY, Network18 reported a resilient performance with operating revenue rising 5% year-on-year to Rs 500 crore in Q3 FY26, compared with Rs 477.2 crore in Q2 FY26. In its earnings release, Network18 says it limited the impact through a significantly lower decline in inventory utilisation, supported by its strong market positions and a diversified portfolio across languages and platforms. 

During the period, Network18 made significant strategic moves to deepen its market leadership.

The company expanded Creator18, its newly launched creator-led advertising vertical, growing its roster to more than 60 exclusive creators. The top 10 creators in the portfolio together deliver reach of over 2 billion. It helps brands like Swiggy, Quillbot, OpenAI, and Samsung to build audience outreach on social platforms. Creator18 is also powering content on Network18. Its first creator-led show, ‘Viral Baat Raunac Ke Saath’, aired on News18 India and garnered over 3 million views on YouTube. 

On a sequential basis, the standalone news business recorded a 4.9% increase in operating revenue, rising to Rs 477.2 crore in Q2 FY26.

For the first nine months of FY26, the news business reported operating revenue of Rs 1,408 crore, up 2.4% year-on-year, despite a high base in the previous year driven by election-related advertising.

Operating expenses for the news business grew 5.1 per cent year-on-year to Rs 488.6 crore in Q3 FY26. Operating EBITDA improved to Rs 11.8 crore during the quarter, compared with Rs 7.4 crore in Q2 FY26, with the EBITDA margin expanding to 2.4% from 1.5% in the previous quarter.

At the company level, Network18 posted a standalone net loss of Rs 107.6 crore in Q3 FY26, wider than the loss of Rs 70.1 crore reported in the preceding quarter.

On a consolidated basis, the company reported a net loss of Rs 5.3 crore for the quarter, compared with a profit of Rs 41.2 crore in Q2 FY26. Net loss attributable to owners stood at Rs 6 crore in Q3 FY26.

Earlier this month, Network18 renewed its long-standing partnership with CNN International for another 10 years, reinforcing its stronghold in the English news segment.

Meanwhile, Moneycontrol remained a key growth driver, delivering double the page views and over three times the time spent compared to its nearest competitor during the quarter. Moneycontrol Pro crossed one million paid subscribers. The premium, intelligence-led Moneycontrol Super Pro continued to gain strong consumer traction, steadily expanding its subscriber base. During the quarter, Moneycontrol’s lending business also recorded sharp growth, further supporting overall performance.

The TV viewership share rose by 110 bps YoY to 14.2%. On digital platforms, Network18 reached approximately 300 million users every month.

Across television, Network18 continued to lead in Hindi, English, Marathi and Kannada markets, while retaining strong positions in Bengali and several Hindi-speaking regional markets. Its portfolio of 20 news channels, including 14 regional channels, remains the largest in India, reaching over 230 million viewers every month, around 45% higher than the nearest competitor, and commanding an all-India TV viewership share of 14%.

Within key news genres, CNBC-TV18 retained its position as the No.1 business news channel with a 43%+ viewership share, while News18 India remained the leading Hindi news channel with a 13.2% share. CNN-News18 continued to dominate the English news genre with a 36.1% share.