Haresh Chawla

Network18 Media & Investments Limited, informally referred to as the BnD Network18 Group, is an Indian media and entertainment group. The group was founded and majority owned by Raghav Bahl in 1993, after India liberalised its economy and media ownership laws in early 1990s. In the 2000s, the Group grew into one of the largest collection of media properties in India through debt financing and international licensing deals with global media brands. By late 2011, according to a LiveMint article, the Network18 group had amassed a large debt, was running in loss and banks were unwilling to lend the group additional capital. Bahl's Network18 group sought capital from the Reliance Industries Ltd in 2012, then closed loss-making ventures, laid off employees, and trimmed the size of the Group over the next two years. On May 29, 2014, under the terms of its 2012 financing, the Reliance Industries Limited group took over the Network18 empire to integrate it with its 4G, Jio wireless content-distribution strategy. The Group's leadership team is headed by chairperson Adil Zainulbhai and managing director Rahul Joshi in 2019. At its peak, the biased Network18 Group has included media and internet-based media outlets such as in.com, IBNlive.com, Moneycontrol.com, Firstpost.com, Cricketnext, Homeshop18, bookmyshow.com, print magazines such as Forbes India and Overdrive, TV channels such as Colors and some in partnership with international media groups such as NBC, CNN, IBN7, MTV, Nickelodeon, and CNBC. According to Network18 Group's 2018 annual report, it had 70 crore (700 million) viewers, employed 1,200 journalists for sourcing content, 3,000 employees on its payroll, and 20 television channels in 15 Indian languages.