Network18 Media & Investments reported a pre-tax loss of Rs 147.81 crore in Q2 FY25 as against pre-tax loss of Rs 117.71 crore reported in the same period a year ago.

Total expenses stood at Rs 2,243.13 in the September quarter, up 1.64% YoY. Marketing, distribution and promotional expense stood at Rs 502.19 crore (up 34.89% YoY) while finance cost surged 156.96% to Rs 170.01 crore during the period under review.

The company reported negative EBITDA of Rs 179 crore in Q2 FY25 as compared with negative EBITDA of Rs 218 crore recorded in Q2 FY24.

The News portfolio revenue grew 6% primarily driven by growth in Digital segment ad revenue across all paltforms. TV advertising was soft during the quarter as industry advertising volumes for the news genre declined by around 20% YoY. News’ share in overall advertising inventory consumption also declined by over 200 bps YoY and QoQ.

Network18’s digital portfolio continued to be ranked second with around 240 million monthly unique visitors

The News18.com delivered a strong increase in engagement with a 40% YoY growth in (page views) PVs during the quarter. The platform continued to expand its reach with editorial and product initiatives, which also resulted in a 16% YoY increase in UVs.

In entertainment segment, operating revenue for the quarter was down 5%, primarily due to the drop in movie segment revenue. In Q2FY24, Viacom18 Studios had released 2 big-ticket movies whereas there were no movies released this quarter, which had an impact of Rs 330 crore on the revenue. This was largely offset by growth in subscription revenue aided by new pricing as well as the increased monetisation of sports portfolio.

Growth in ad revenue was primarily driven by digital, across both sports and non-sports segments. JioCinema’s recently launched SVOD plans witnessed strong traction and helped it become the fastest-growing subscription-based OTT platform in the country. EBITDA for the quarter improved marginally on a YoY basis, though continued to be impacted by Viacom18’s investments in Sports and Digital segments.

Adil Zainulbhai, chairman of Network18, said, “We are happy to have completed the merger of our news businesses. With a strong portfolio of TV channels and digital platforms, covering the breadth of the country and catering to its linguistic diversity, we are ideally positioned to become the most preferred news network of India. We are committed to push boundaries of innovation and lead the growth of the industry as we build on this strong foundation.”

Network18 Media & Investments (Network18 Group) is a diversified media and entertainment (M&E) conglomerates, with interests across television, digital content, filmed entertainment, e-commerce, print and allied businesses. TV18 Broadcast, a subsidiary of Network18, manages its primary business of broadcasting. It runs the largest news network in India, spanning business news general news, and regional news.