Network18 reported a resilient performance with operating revenue rising 5% year-on-year to ₹500 crore in Q3 FY26, compared with ₹477.2 crore in Q2 FY26, despite continued weakness in the macro advertising environment.
The growth comes at a time when advertising inventory demand for the TV news industry declined by over 10% YoY. Network18, however, 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.
For the first nine months of the financial year, Network18 posted 2.4% revenue growth despite a high base from election-related advertising, reinforcing its resilience and leadership as India’s No.1 news network.
In view of the soft revenue environment, Network18 maintained prudent control on expenses, resulting in operating costs also growing only marginally during this period.
Commenting on the performance, Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of Network18, said, “Once again we have demonstrated that we continue to defy industry trends by delivering a resilient performance amidst a challenging macro environment. We hope that the positive steps taken by the government over the last few months to boost consumer spending will translate into increased consumption which will benefit companies like ours. Meanwhile we continue with our unwavering focus on strengthening our position as India’s premier news destination.”
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 an unduplicated 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.
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, reinforcing its position as India’s largest digital news subscription platform. 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 network maintained its position as India’s number one news network, with TV viewership share rising by 110 bps YoY to 14.2%. On digital platforms, Network18 reached approximately 300 million users every month, making it the largest digital news and information network in the country. (Source: BARC, TG: 15+ | Market: All India | Wk’52’25 vs Wk’52’24; Comscore Total Digital Population Report, Nov’25)
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%. (Source: BARC | Market: India, News Genre | TG: 15+ | Week 49’25-52’25 )
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.
(Source: BARC | Market: 10L+ | TG: NCCS AB, Male 22+ | Mon-Fri, 0800 -1600 | Week 49’25-52’25; BARC | Market: HSM | TG: 15+ | Week 49’25-52’25; BARC | Market: India | TG: NCCS AB 15+ | Week 49’25-52’25)
Regionally, the network led the Marathi market with 28.5% share and the Kannada market with 24.9% share, while maintaining strong traction in West Bengal and other Hindi-speaking regions. (Source: BARC | Market: Mah/Goa, Karnataka | TG: NCCS AB 15+ | Week 49’25-52’25)
On the digital front, Network18 strengthened its leadership, remaining the largest digital news network on YouTube with over 100% YoY growth and more than 2.5x (Source: Playboard, Social Blade, Oct’25-Dec’25) the video views of its nearest competitor, reinforcing its dominance across platforms.
