The story
1996–2007: Acquisition and restructuring
SGA Finance and Management Services was incorporated on 16 February 1996, as a private limited company by Geeta and Rakesh Gupta and acquired soon afterwards by Vidya Devi and Anil Jindal. The company had remained inactive without any clear prospects until it was later acquired by the promoters of Television Eighteen India Limited.
The news broadcasting company Television Eighteen (TEIL) founded by Ritu Kapur and Raghav Bahl, became a public limited company in 1999 and its initial public offering (IPO) received an overwhelming response. The investments through the IPO exceeded the target set by the company by a magnitude of over 50 times by the end of the year, raising ₹2,511 crore (equivalent to ₹34 billion or US$350 million in 2026) in the process. This decreased the promoters' stake in the company from 75% to 26.11% by 2002 causing complications. The company was in the middle of preparations to launch a Hindi business news channel but could no longer meet regulatory guidelines. TEIL was in a joint venture with CNBC since 1998, and the news channel to be launched was called CNBC Awaaz. The guidelines required the Indian promoters to have more than 51% stake in their company to be able to establish a new uplink for broadcasting.
In 2003, SGA Finance was acquired by Ritu Kapur and Raghav Bahl, in to order to launch the channel and Bahl became its managing director. The company raised ₹5 crore (equivalent to ₹6.8 crore or US$700,000 in 2026) through two batches of investments from the two promoters in March 2003 and in January 2004, and then incorporated a subsidiary called SGA News. In the meantime, the government introduced a 26% foreign equity cap in the news broadcasting industry. In response to the new regulations the joint venture with CNBC was discarded and the partnership converted into a content branding and franchise agreement. In the financial year 2004–2005, TEIL invested ₹25 crore (equivalent to ₹34 crore or US$3.5 million in 2026) in SGA News for preferences stocks. CNBC Awaaz was launched on 13 January 2005.
In the financial year 2005–2006, TEIL supplemented its initial investment with an additional ₹39.10 crore (equivalent to ₹53 crore or US$5.5 million in 2026) in SGA News for common stocks. Following this, the boards of both the companies proposed a restructuring which received approval from the shareholders. The companies underwent several rounds of restructuring which came to a conclusion in November 2006. TEIL became a subsidiary of SGA Finance, the promoters gained a majority stake in TEIL, CNBC Awaaz was transferred to TEIL and shareholders of TEIL were accommodated with a stake in SGA Finance. On 20 October 2006, SGA Finance was converted into a public limited company and re-incorporated as Network18 Fincap Limited.
During the restructuring process, TEIL had also founded a subsidiary called Global Broadcast News (GBN). GBN had entered into a franchising partnership with CNN Worldwide to launch the English general news channel CNN IBN in December 2005. Bahl was able to convince several senior professionals working at the leading news broadcaster NDTV including their editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai and the chief financial officer (CFO) Sameer Manchanda to join the enterprise before its launch. Haresh Chawla, the CEO of TEIL and Network18 was instrumental in both convincing Sardesai to quit and Bahl to take on NDTV as their competition. Due to the restructuring, Network18 instead of TEIL was allotted the shares of GBN and by the end of the financial year 2006–2007, Network18 held both GBN and TEIL as its subsidiaries; GBN operated CNN IBN and TEIL operating all the business news channels along with the information websites Moneycontrol and News Wire. Network18 was converted into a public limited company in 2006, and listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in 2007.
2007–2011: Expansion, consolidation and increasing debt
Global Broadcast News (GBN), the subsidiary operating CNN IBN became a publicly traded company in January 2007 and its IPO generated a successful response, similar to that of Television Eighteen India Limited (TEIL). GBN was renamed as IBN18 Broadcast, and on 1 December 2007, Network18 Fincap itself was renamed to Network18 Media & Investments. Network18 began diversifying with cross media interests in 2008. It had high liquidity and expanded rapidly, it started the film production house called Indian Film Company (IFC), launched the shopping channel Home Shop18, and entered into an franchise agreement to launch the Indian edition of the Forbes business magazine, while IBN18 Broadcast entered into a joint venture with the Marathi language newspaper Lokmat to launch the Marathi news channel IBN Lokmat, and began a joint venture with ViacomCBS to initiate the group's foray in mass media and general entertainment channels under Viacom18.
Network18 registered losses in the financial years 2008–2009 and 2009–2010. Its investments had outstripped the profits generated by its operational assets. In addition, the group had existing debt obligations and requirements for providing returns to its investors which resulted in net losses of ₹331.64 crore (equivalent to ₹450 crore or US$47 million in 2026) and ₹276.89 crore (equivalent to ₹375 crore or US$39 million in 2026) respectively. Viacom18 in particular was a drain on the company's funds. The financial statement of the company in 2009 had reported that it was retiring outstanding debt and raising funds through equity investments. In response to the financial challenges, the group began restructuring and consolidating its assets in the same year. IBN18 Broadcast was renamed to TV18 Broadcast and Television Eighteen India Limited (TEIL) which operated the business news channels of the company was merged into it. The digital media and publishing operations were transferred to the parent company Network18 under the divisions of Web18 Software Services and Network18 Publishing respectively.
In the financial year 2010–2011, Network18 registered a loss of ₹43.53 crore (equivalent to ₹59 crore or US$6.1 million in 2026), which was a considerable decrease from the previous two years and Bahl reportedly told the shareholders during the presentation of the annual report that "the best times are still ahead of us". In 2010, Network18 went on to announce a new joint venture AETN18 with the American media company A&E Networks to launch History TV18, the Indian edition of History channel. The company had also entered into a distribution joint venture with the Sun Network called Sun18. It had 2 divisions named Sun18 North and Sun18 South, the former was managed by Network18 and the latter by the Sun Network. The joint venture was later restricted to Tamil Nadu and replaced by the TV18–Viacom18 distribution joint venture IndiaCast in 2012. The consolidation of assets was completed by 2011 but it alone could not mitigate the financial challenges. Over the past years, the market had changed rapidly, the group was facing increased competition from other broadcasters, and advertising revenue had decreased due to economic downturn.
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2011–2014: Takeover by Reliance Industries
Network18 had made optimistic projections for years but after 2011, it came to face a possible financial collapse and loss of control for its managing director Raghav Bahl. The group had accumulated an outstanding debt of over ₹1,400 crore (equivalent to ₹19 billion or US$200 million in 2026) by September 2011. Employees were convinced that the company had expanded too aggressively and the market could not support it. In search of assistance in the form of external financing, Bahl decided to begin talks with the multinational energy giant Reliance Industries.
In November 2011, the CEO, Haresh Chawla resigned despite having been one of the founders of the media conglomerate. According to company insiders, he was persistently trying to convince Bahl to not enter into a debt agreement with Mukesh Ambani and instead raise funds by divesting part of the group's stake in the subsidiary Viacom18. In a later interview, he had commented that his resignation was an easy decision as he did not want anything to do with the Ambanis. According to a senior editor at the group, the decision to enter the talks was made reluctantly, as "[Bahl] was in a bind about entering a pact with the devil".
On 3 January 2012, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Network18 announced a partnership. Reliance Industries set up a body called the Independent Media Trust (IMT) and infused funds into the company through a number of shell companies as part of a complex financial transaction. ₹5,400 crore (equivalent to ₹73 billion or US$760 million in 2026) was transferred to Network18 and TV18 Broadcast, half the amount to each respectively, of which Network18 received a net amount of ₹4,000 crore (equivalent to ₹54 billion or US$560 million in 2026) due to its stake in TV18. The shell companies gained rights to debentures convertible to equity within 10 years. RIL also forced Network18 to buy its stakeholding in ETV Network for a sum of ₹2,100 crore (equivalent to ₹28 billion or US$300 million in 2026) without which the net sum would have been for a much smaller amount. The purchase also included two regional broadcasters; Panorama and Prism. The acquisition included most of the television broadcasting properties of the Ramoji Group. The group retained the rights to ETV brand, while Network18 acquired 100% shareholding of 5 general news channels, 50% shareholding of 5 general entertainment channels and 24.5% shareholding in 2 other channels. The entertainment channels were held by the joint venture of Viacom18. One point of disagreement for Chawla had been in the valuation of ETV at ₹3,500 crore (equivalent to ₹47 billion or US$490 million in 2026) when the company was worth only ₹525 crore (equivalent to ₹712 crore or US$74 million in 2026) in March 2011.
The transaction was completed in 2013, and turned Network18 into the largest group of media companies in India, surpassing Star India owned by the billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch and The Times Group owned by the Sahu Jain family. The broadband subsidiary of RIL, Infotel signed a memorandum of understanding with the group and gained preferential access to its content. In the form of a passive investor, RIL had indirect control over the company, and authority over its financial decisions. The executives retained operational control of the company. On 12 November 2012, IMT passed a resolution which allowed two senior officials from RIL to be appointed as additional trustees and Bahl lost further control within the trust. IMT held the option of converting the debentures to equity which could turn RIL into the majority shareholder of Network18.
In 2013, Network18 had become debt free, and RIL's investment had led to assumptions that it would not initiate any further cost-cutting measures. Viacom18 after being a drain on the network's finances for years had finished its long germination period and had entered into a period of exponential growth. However, on 16 August 2013, the company carried out an unexpected large scale wage reduction and staff lay-offs which came to be known as "Black Friday" among the employees. In the news branches, the lay-offs included around 300 producers, journalists and other staff, who were fired in no recognisable pattern in terms of salary, seniority or branch. There was ambiguity over severance packages and compensations and the human resources department was accompanied by executives of the RIL backed IMT in abrupt handing out of termination letters to employees without prior notice, who were then told to leave within 10 minutes. This further led to job insecurity among employees, many of whom began applying for and were hired by competing news broadcasters in the following period.
In the months of November–December, the network's coverage of Arvind Kejriwal started to become a source of contention with RIL and Ambani. Kejriwal was the head of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement and had made several allegations against various politicians and businessmen, including Mukesh Ambani. His allegations against Ambani and RIL was over irregularities in pricing of natural gas in the Krishna Godavari Basin which received national media attention and was reported on by Network18 as well.
RIL denied the allegation and reacted by threatening to file a lawsuit against Kejriwal but without any effect. Following which, the energy giant reportedly attempted to pressurise Network18 into censoring any and all coverage of IAC and Kejriwal including in March 2014, in a direct communication between Ambani and Rajdeep Sardesai, the managing editor of CNN IBN and IBN 7. In the previous years, one allegation that had come up against Ambani was that he had bailed out Ramoji Rao in the Margdarsai chit fund scandal and in the process gained stake in Rao's ETV Network, the same company which RIL had forced Network18 to buy a stake in. According to an anonymous insider present at a meeting between the executives of Network18 and RIL, the right-hand man of Ambani, Manoj Modi had threatened Bahl by stating "You are calling us a dacoit, you are shouting that we are crony capitalists. If that is so, then why did you come to us for money in the first place? Do you think you have a clean record?"
Around the same time, the network increasingly began leaning right wing and attempted to publicise Narendra Modi as the prospective prime ministerial candidate with feature pieces and continuous reporting. The network dedicated more hours than any other broadcaster to Modi and disproportionately more compared to other candidates. The executives of Network18 were eager to repay the loan to RIL and get rid of Ambani's influence over the company. Reports have suggested that the network's coverage of Kejriwal became the trigger for the company to initiate a takeover. RIL communicated its intention to Bahl, offering him the option of continuing as managing editor with a ₹20 crore (equivalent to ₹27 crore or US$2.8 million in 2026) annual salary and gave him 3 days to make his decision. He rejected the offer and on 27 May 2014, announced in midst of a routine meeting with his board of directors that he was going to resign as RIL wanted to takeover and nothing could be done about it.
The announcement caused an exodus of employees from the company which included senior journalists and executives. B. Sai Kumar (CEO) and Ajay Chacko (COO) resigned on 28 May 2014. From the following day, a stream of resignations started coming in while RIL released a press statement that it had gained complete control of the company, R. D. S. Bawa (CFO) and Ritu Kapur (co-promoter and one of the directors) resigned on the same day. The legal general counsel to the company, Kshipra Jatana resigned from her position but stayed on to oversee the transfer of ownership. She was appointed as the manager of the company for the interim period since Bahl had resigned as well.
Bahl and Kapur received ₹706.96 crore (equivalent to ₹959 crore or US$100 million in 2026) for RIL to acquire their remaining shares. The net valuation of the company was at ₹4,295 crore (equivalent to ₹58 billion or US$600 million in 2026), whereas the net cash flow for RIL stood at ₹1,341 crore (equivalent to ₹18 billion or US$190 million in 2026) in the multi year transaction between 2011 and 2014 including those related to ETV. RIL had mitigated costs in this period through returns from the investments in the two companies and from selling the shares it had acquired in Network18's subsidiaries themselves. It was noted that due to the structure of the transaction, RIL had in effect partly financed its takeover by raising funds from the company's own subsidiaries such as TV18 Broadcast. The takeover process was completed on 7 July 2014; IMT and its sole benefactor RIL became the new promoters group.
2014–Present: Reliance Industries era
Following the takeover, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) reshuffled the management and board of directors of both Network18 and its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast. The nominees of the RIL backed Independent Media Trust (IMT) joined the board of Network18. Deepak Parekh, the chairman of Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and Adil Zainulbhai were also inducted into the company as independent directors in the board. While retaining the position of independent director at RIL and Larsen & Toubro, and being the newly elected Narendra Modi government's appointment to the position of chairman of Quality Council of India (QCI), Zainulbhai was appointed by RIL to the position of chairman of the board. Commentators raised concerns that the editorial integrity of the network may not be preserved under the new management. The channels of the network had stopped all coverage of Kejriwal and the new Aam Aadmi Party who had levied corruption accusations at RIL. The editor-in-chief of the flagship general news channel CNN IBN, resigned within a week of the takeover with the reason that the management was interfering in editorial decision making and dictating what could or could not be aired.
A. P. Parigi, the former managing director and CEO of Entertainment Network India Limited (The Times Group subsidiary operating Radio Mirchi), was recruited by RIL and appointed as the new CEO of Network18 on 29 January 2015. Parigi resigned as CEO and was moved to an advisory role in the company on 1 October. Rahul Joshi replaced Parigi as the new CEO and was made the editor-in-chief of the group. Joshi was the editorial director of The Economic Times, a financial newspaper published by The Times Group before he had resigned from the company to join Network18 in August 2015. The editorial departments were unified with the operational and commercial divisions of the company, the chairman Zainulbhai stated that Pairigi had helped stabilise the operations and that Joshi would now run the company with an "ownership mindset".
The acquisition of the company by RIL, the largest conglomerate in India with deep interests in the energy sector, was considered to be a part of a trend of growing commodification of information, detrimental to the treatment of journalism as a public service. It increased the concentration of cross media ownership in the hands of a small group of large corporate actors in a market that was already oligopolistic and reduced the diversity of information disseminating outlets. Control over the news organisation, had strengthened RIL's ability to influence the formation of public opinion and as a result the political economy of the country, and also decreased space for reporting which could be detrimental to the energy giant's interests and public relations. Between 2014 and 2016, Network18 attempted to expand into regional markets of the news broadcasting sector with a spate of new channels, which was seen with apprehension among media observers. The expansion occurred as part of RIL's ₹150,000 crore (equivalent to ₹2.0 trillion or US$21 billion in 2026) investment in the rollout of its 4G data business.
From Wikipedia’s article on Network18 Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4