<p>Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries on Thursday denied reports of selling its news media business to Times Group.</p>.<p>Bloomberg early on Thursday reported that Ambani "<a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/business-news/ambani-in-talks-to-sell-news-assets-to-times-group-780555.html" target="_blank">is in talks to sell his news media assets</a> to India's Times Group, as Asia's richest man plans to unload a business that's been losing money".</p>.<p>"Reliance Industries firmly denies (the) story. The story is baseless and false," a company spokesperson said.</p>.<p>The report had quoted people familiar with the matter to say that Bennett Coleman & Co, the publisher of the Times of India, is looking to hire advisers for due diligence on the news properties of Ambani's Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.</p>.<p>Bennett Coleman's spokesperson couldn't be immediately reached for comments.</p>.<p>Reliance had in 2014 bought Network18, which owns and operates 56 local channels spanning news and entertainment, for up to Rs 4,000 crore.</p>.<p>Network18 owns TV channels (including CNBCTV18, CNN-IBN, CNN Awaz), websites (firstpost.com, moneycontrol.com), magazines (including the license for Forbes India), entertainment channel (Colors and MTV) among other businesses.</p>.<p>Unlisted Bennett Coleman, also known as the Times Group, already has two news channels -- Times Now (for general news) and ET Now (the business news channel) which compete with Network18's general news channel News18 and business news channel CNBCTV18.</p>.<p>TV18 Broadcast Ltd - the BSE-listed firm that houses the news channels - has a market cap of about Rs 4,100 crore. Promoters hold 60.40 percent interest in the company which had in the July-September quarter reported a net loss of Rs 1.03 crore. It had a profit of Rs 8.5 crore in 2018-19 fiscal.</p>.<p>Last month, Reliance in its consolidated earnings statement for the July-September quarter reported a Rs 47 crore pre-tax profit from its media business on a revenue of Rs 1,174 crore.</p>.<p>"Robust 43 percent growth in subscription income post-implementation of new tariff order (NTO) was offset by a weak advertising environment," it had said. "News portfolio solidified its leadership with a 10.9 percent viewership share. Broad-based cost optimizations led to Entertainment Business-as-usual (BAU) margins rising to 12.9 percent, vs 9.9 percent in 2Q FY19."</p>
<p>Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries on Thursday denied reports of selling its news media business to Times Group.</p>.<p>Bloomberg early on Thursday reported that Ambani "<a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/business-news/ambani-in-talks-to-sell-news-assets-to-times-group-780555.html" target="_blank">is in talks to sell his news media assets</a> to India's Times Group, as Asia's richest man plans to unload a business that's been losing money".</p>.<p>"Reliance Industries firmly denies (the) story. The story is baseless and false," a company spokesperson said.</p>.<p>The report had quoted people familiar with the matter to say that Bennett Coleman & Co, the publisher of the Times of India, is looking to hire advisers for due diligence on the news properties of Ambani's Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.</p>.<p>Bennett Coleman's spokesperson couldn't be immediately reached for comments.</p>.<p>Reliance had in 2014 bought Network18, which owns and operates 56 local channels spanning news and entertainment, for up to Rs 4,000 crore.</p>.<p>Network18 owns TV channels (including CNBCTV18, CNN-IBN, CNN Awaz), websites (firstpost.com, moneycontrol.com), magazines (including the license for Forbes India), entertainment channel (Colors and MTV) among other businesses.</p>.<p>Unlisted Bennett Coleman, also known as the Times Group, already has two news channels -- Times Now (for general news) and ET Now (the business news channel) which compete with Network18's general news channel News18 and business news channel CNBCTV18.</p>.<p>TV18 Broadcast Ltd - the BSE-listed firm that houses the news channels - has a market cap of about Rs 4,100 crore. Promoters hold 60.40 percent interest in the company which had in the July-September quarter reported a net loss of Rs 1.03 crore. It had a profit of Rs 8.5 crore in 2018-19 fiscal.</p>.<p>Last month, Reliance in its consolidated earnings statement for the July-September quarter reported a Rs 47 crore pre-tax profit from its media business on a revenue of Rs 1,174 crore.</p>.<p>"Robust 43 percent growth in subscription income post-implementation of new tariff order (NTO) was offset by a weak advertising environment," it had said. "News portfolio solidified its leadership with a 10.9 percent viewership share. Broad-based cost optimizations led to Entertainment Business-as-usual (BAU) margins rising to 12.9 percent, vs 9.9 percent in 2Q FY19."</p>