Haresh Chawla, Group CEO of TV18, while acknowledging the losses seen by the Group's web and newswire businesses, is confident of a performance turnaround in both these media spaces. "Everybody sees the future of the internet business; we are seeing good advertising traction but we are spending much more on development and creating new properties so that we can attract new audiences’ in - that’s the story on Web18." Similarly, Chawla expressed confidence in NewsWire18, as a fast-growing brand.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18’s exclusive interview with Haresh Chawla:

Q: Going through numbers: on a consolidated year on year basis it has been a net loss this time and predictably it seems like it’s the Web18 arm which has actually been the dampener because the income from news operation is stupendous?

A: We are investing in the web business and newswire both; both of them have contributed to losses. News operations have shown extremely strong growth despite the fact that we have got more competition in the market and despite the fact that there has been an economic slowdown.

Web, we are in a public beta for our new property In.com and therefore that’s going to be big launch that’s coming up from Web18 and therefore we will continue to build our audience there. Everybody sees the future of the internet business; we are seeing good advertising traction but we are spending much more on development and creating new properties so that we can attract new audiences’ in - that’s the story on Web18.

On NewsWire18, the brand is doing extremely well. We have had a bigger offtake since last year but it’s in investment phase still. I think a year or so to go on NewsWire18, and we will see that turnaround. 

Q: The industry slowdown - how is that impacting your ad spends because that’s the key concern when it comes to any news channel, any media organisation?
 
A: I think we won’t see the kind of growth we have seen in the past. I think we have been growing over 50% or close to 50% for the last several years. I see that tempering down a bit closer to in-the-range of 25-30%; that’s what our expectation is. The market is impacted but the breadth and scale of brands and the fact that we are much more targeting consumers in many more formats today, is helping us diversify or de-risk our revenues lines. So that has kicked in. Of course, you are seeing pressure on the financial category, which is going to show up on our numbers. Therefore growth will be tempered; we are not seeing de-growth anywhere but growth is likely to be tempered in the coming year.
 
Q: Do you hope to compensate that with buffering your subscription revenues?
 
A: The big opportunity across all our brands is subscription revenue. We have to yet see some more launches in the DTH (Direct-to-Home) front; we are likely to see some more moves on the digital cable front as well. We will get to know this over the course of next six to nine months. But once these kick in that's phenomenal revenue line that waiting to be captured by our brands. They (brands) are top into the market; our ability to extract that subscription revenue is extremely high but the platforms have to yet gain size and momentum which is likely to happen over the next year as you have Reliance, Bharti, Videocon all these other DTH platforms launching. You will find that subscription revenue will become an extremely strong revenue-line for our business.                  
 
Q: Your income from news operations obviously continues. Could you give us the break up of the individual channels, CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz?
 
A: We don?t disclose these separately. But Awaaz has shown phenomenal growth. It has picked up dramatically over the last year. It has contributed to our growth as well.
 
Q: What is the status on your minimum guarantee with DEN - Digital Entertainment Networks?
 
A: I cannot disclose the terms of these contracts to you. But suffice to say that we are part of a much stronger bouquet now and that should show up in our subscription revenue as well.
 
Q: All eyes are awaiting the launch of Forbes and the English business newspaper. What is the status on that?
 
A: The magazine team is in place. Work is on to launch and hopefully before the end of the year, we will see a strong launch on the magazine front.
 
On the newspaper, again, we are not disclosing anything publicly now. But we have declared that we will be in that business.
 
Q: It has been in the pipeline for a very long time now.
 
A: Yes, it has been. We should see that coming up fairly soon.
 
Q: What is the launch status for the joint venture with Jagran?
 
A: Within this year you will find all these launches coming up.
 
Q: Could you throw some light on the wage impact, there are two strong competitors coming in this time?
 
A: Our dominance in the business space and the kind of brand that we have and the kind of editorial that is put out, I think that is a natural hedge to some extent and we are able to retain our people.
 
Besides that, of course the market is under pressure on the wage front and we have been one of the top pay-masters in the industry and we will continue to be so.
 
Q: One final question, just as an industry outlook, even though your latest GEC venture, Colors, is not really part of the TV18 Group. Nonetheless, how do you plan to accelerate your growth in the GEC (General Entertainment Channel) segment hereon?
 
A: We have had an extremely good launch of Colors though it is specifically not part of TV18. It is probably the best debut that a GEC has seen in the past in India. Clearly the whole impact of the 'Network' effect is kicking-in. Today, we are a 10-channel network at Network18. Our ability to gather audiences for any of our properties is far in excess of most other competitors; much like we have seen happen in the case of Colors.
 
Our ability to therefore build up and monetise every property is much better, because we have got strong brands within the network. We have MTV, Nickelodeon, CNBC, CNN-IBN; the entire network is now helping power each new brand that comes up.

(Note: Web18, which owns Moneycontrol.com and Indiaearnings.com, belongs to the Network18 Group).