In a muted ad market, TV18’s news business sees 20% revenue jump

TV18’s news business has registered a solid 20% revenue growth in the second quarter of the current financial year. Beating the industry trends, India’s largest TV news network registered a revenue of Rs 357 crore in the first quarter of current fiscal, as compared to Rs 298 crore for the same period last fiscal.

 The increase in the revenue comes on the back of strong viewership gains achieved by the network’s No.1 channels. The news network maintained absolute leadership in the largest markets, with an all India viewership share of 11.4%.

 The digital news business of TV18 and Network18, which includes brands such as Moneycontrol, Firstpost, cnbctv18.com and news18.com, also saw a 20% growth in revenue. It posted a revenue of Rs 104 crore in the second quarter of current fiscal, as compared to Rs 87 crore for the same period last fiscal.

 In Q1 FY24 also, the TV news network registered 26% revenue growth, as compared to Q1 FY23. News18 was the highest reach news network in the country, reaching ~190mn consumers on a weekly basis. The network maintained its leadership position in key markets with CNBC TV18, News18 India, and CNN-News18 being No.1 in their respective genres.

 CNN-News18 was the No.1 English news channel with 32.8% market share in the genre. CNBC TV18 continued to be the undisputed leader in the English Business News genre with 80% overall share and 95%+ viewership share during market hours.

 TV18 was also the primetime leader in the Hindi speaking markets, solidifying its position as the network of choice in the region. The network had leadership in 5 regional markets, including UP/Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, MP/Chhatisgarh. News18 Lokmat, the Marathi language channel, climbed viewership charts to become the second ranked channel, driven by the programming initiatives launched over the past year.

 “TV news network delivered a strong growth in advertising revenue despite the continued weakness in advertising environment. The revenue growth was underpinned by the strong viewership share that the network has achieved which has helped it to improve pricing across the network. TV18’s sharp focus on building IP- events business has also helped it drive growth in revenue,” the company said in its results announcement.