Is NDTV India’s best media stock?

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Editor's note: First the numbers. In the year ended 31 March 2021, New Delhi Television Ltd recorded total income of Rs 407.9 crore and profit of Rs 74.8 crore. In the previous fiscal year, NDTV had recorded a total income of Rs 393 crore and a profit of Rs 27.9 crore. So year-on-year, even though NDTV’s revenues were largely flat, the company squeezed out a fairly impressive 2.7x growth in its bottom line. This performance is not particularly impressive when you look at other publicly listed media companies, especially in television. For instance, the Reliance Industries-owned Network18 Media recorded a consolidated income of Rs 4,748 crore in 2020-21, and a profit of only Rs 32 crore, up from a Rs 236 crore loss the previous fiscal; most of the revenue came from television-focused subsidiary TV18 Broadcast, also a public company, which recorded Rs 4,560 crore in consolidated 2020-21 revenue, and a net profit of Rs 745.7 crore.  However, TV18—and by extension Network18—derives most of its income from entertainment channels, while NDTV is far more focused on news. A comparison with a smaller, …