News Broadcasting
Tom Online Inc. buys wireless entertainment firm Infomax
MUMBAI: China’s wireless internet company Tom Online Inc is acquiring a wireless entertainment company Infomax with the maximum valuation capped at approximately $75 million.
Through the acquisition, Tom Online will gain access to Infomax’s extensive TV distribution network which reaches out to millions of Chinese households. This acquisition is expected to further strengthen Tom Online’s leadership in China’s wireless Internet market.
Following the acquisition, significant synergies between Infomax and Tom Online are expected to be created in the coming years. Tom Online has proven and pioneered the integration of TV and wireless media as a new way to inform and entertain Chinese consumers with the purchase of Treasure Base in 2004. By combining Tom Online’s own industry leading service platform with Infomax’s strong TV operator relationships and experience, the company believes the acquisition of Infomax will produce yet more benefits in the areas of product diversification, operational efficiency and content sharing.
Through its unique relationships with TV operators and other entertainment companies, Infomax has been providing wireless interactive products and services to China’s national TV audience since 2003. Tom Online management believes the purchase presents tremendous synergy potential for enhancing Infomax’s existing product portfolio given Tom Online’s leadership in SMS, WAP, MMS, CRBT and IVR services.
Tom Online CEO Wang Lei Lei said, “The achievements accomplished by Tom Online in the wireless Internet market today are not only the results of our ability to continuously innovate, they are also the results of our solid working relationships with mobile operators such as China Mobile. With that as a foundation, we work hard to build the most comprehensive and multifaceted distribution network in the SP industry, and focus on formulating strategies to develop entertainment and sports-related products. In the TV media alone, we have accumulated a vast amount of content cooperation experiences through our partnerships with more than 200 TV stations. I believe, with the addition of Infomax, Tom Online will be able to further enhance its TV distribution network, which in turn will help promote the growth of our entertainment services.”
Besides TV alliances, Tom Online’s extensive distribution platform also brings many media partners from print, radio and the Internet, as well as audio and visual distributors and handset manufacturers. Through its acquisition of service provider Treasure Base in August 2004, Tom Online became the exclusive wireless content partner of China’s most watched sports channel.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
