News Broadcasting
Times group offloads Mid-Day stake in the open market
MUMBAI: The signals are mixed, but they undoubtedly are there. While one media company announced a 10 per cent buy out of equity stake in Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd (MML) for Rs 255.4 million, another one sold part of its shareholding in Mid-Day late last week.
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL), which had acquired 7.72 per cent equity stake in MML a while back, offloaded 13,88,313 shares of Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd in the open market.
The BCCL deal that took place on 4 March, a day after The Indian Express picked up 10 per cent stake in the company, was struck at Rs 85.69 per share.
BCCL, which owns The Times of India and other popular print publications, carried out the deal through Banhem Financial & Investment Consultants Limited, an investment arm of the media company. After the sale of shares, its holding in Mid-Day Multimedia, along with Dharmayug Investments Limited, is 22,95,466 shares, according to a posting on the National Stock Exchange.
On being queried on the sale and purchase of Mid-Day shares, Mid-Day Multimedia MD Tariq Ansari did not offer any comments. To another query on whether there could be some synergy between Mid-Day and the Express, Ansari said through e-mail, ” Yes it will. A committee is being formed to evaluate the process and put together a proposal for the company’s board to consider.”
A media stock analyst with a Mumbai-based investment company, while commenting on sale of Mid-Day shares by BCCL, opined that the shedding of Times group stake is indicative of “reduced possibilities between two media corporate houses ( Times and Express ) for fight of control in MML in the immediate future.”
On 3 March, Mid-Day had informed the stock exchange that The Indian Express has bought 10 per cent equity in the company for Rs 255.4 million.
The promoters of Mid-Day (through companies Ferari Investments and Trading and Meridian Holding and Leasing) have agreed to sell 42,56,628 shares of the company at a price of Rs 60 per share to The Indian Express. The post transaction holding of the promoters would be 53.6 per cent.
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.
