Network18’s TV news revenue jumps 14% in election quarter, digital up 34%

New Delhi: Network18’s TV news business has recorded a significant jump of 14% in its revenue in the first quarter of FY25.

TV news segment earned a revenue of Rs 385 crore in Q1FY25, as compared to Rs 337 crore in the same quarter of FY24.

“The segment delivered industry-leading revenue growth during the general elections on the back of strong market positions across genres,” Network18 said in its regulatory filing.

TV News portfolio delivered 30% advertising growth during the quarter.

“The network leveraged its leadership positions across key markets and election-linked advertising tailwinds to deliver industry-leading ad growth,” the company said.

EBITDA for the quarter saw a turnaround as revenue grew 14% while costs were flat. The TV news network posted EBITDA of Rs. 40 crore in Q1FY25, a 46% increase (YoY).

The news network’s All-India TV viewership share of 11.3% was 40bps higher on a quarter-on-quarter basis, driven by its unparalleled 360-degree coverage of general elections, the company said.

It added News18 was the preferred network of choice across the country, highlighted by the fact that the reach of the network on the counting day was 50% higher than that of IPL finale on TV.

The network maintained its leadership in key markets. CNBC-TV18 dominated as the top business channel with 66.2% viewership share, CNN-News18 held the number one spot in the English news segment with 35.8% share, and News18 India secured 13.5% viewership share, the company said.

“The news network is also a leading force in covering state-level news through its portfolio of 14 regional channels. The network had leadership positions in 3 regional markets of UP/Uttarakhand, Bihar/Jharkhand and Gujarat. News channels in West Bengal, Rajasthan, Orissa, and Punjab/Haryana were strong number two players,” the company said.

It continues to be the highest-reach TV news network in the country, reaching 200 million people across the country every week, added the company.

Digital news business sees 34% growth

The Digital news business of Network18 recorded a revenue growth of 34% in Q1FY25. It registered a total revenue of Rs 109 crore as compared to Rs 81 crore for the same quarter in FY24.

Network18’s digital news portfolio saw a sharp jump in monthly unique visitors.

“With 250 million unique visitors, Network18 closed the reach gap with the leader to just 10%, compared to 50%+ in March 2023,” the company said.

“Moneycontrol continued to be the number one player in terms of both reach and engagement metrics driven by its exhaustive coverage of all things related to economy and markets. All key engagement metrics like monthly page views, time-spent and sessions were 20%-70% higher than the nearest competitor,” it added.

Moneycontrol Pro crossed 8.1 lakh paid subscribers, strengthening its position as the number one subscription-based news platform in India and amongst the top 3 in Asia as per FIPP's Digital Subscription Report.

News18.com established itself as the number one platform for non-English language consumers in India during the last quarter. The platform continued to expand its reach with editorial and product initiatives, which resulted in 50% growth in monthly average unique visitors on a quarter-on-quarter basis and 100% Y-o-Y growth in on-platform video views. News18’s mobile app saw 2x increase in MAUs and News18’s Connected TV app was launched for platforms like Android, Samsung Tizen and Firestick.

Firstpost’s coverage of international events with an Indian perspective continued to power reach and engagement through the quarter. The platform saw a 67% increase in monthly active users and page views since the launch of the revamped website. On counting day, the website’s traffic doubled compared to normal days and time spent grew 4x. Firstpost’s growth on YouTube continued to be impressive with subscriber count crossing the 5 million mark.