News Broadcasting
PVR Cinemas to invest Rs 800 million on multiplexes
MUMBAI: Delhi-based PVR Cinemas is planning to invest around Rs 800 million for expanding its chain of multiplexes to 20 by the end of this financial year.
The 20 multiplexes will be spread across 8-9 cities. Currently, PVR Cinemas has nine multiplexes in five cities – Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Chandigarh and Bangalore. The latest in the line-up, a 11-screen multiplex in Bangalore, was opened today.
The company is planning to instal approximately 70-80 screens. Currently, PVR has 37 screens.
“We plan to invest around Rs 80 crore and have 20 properties by March 2005,” PVR Cinemas managing director Ajjay Bijli told indiantelevision.com.
The funding plans for the project, Bijli says, are very fluid. “We will take a call by the end of this financial year. It could be debt, equity or from internal accruals.” ICICI Venture has a 35 per cent stake in PVR Cinemas.
The new multiplexes are coming up in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. In Mumbai, the multiplexes will be stationed in suburbs Goregaon (10-screen), Mulund (6-screen), Juhu (5-screen), South Mumbai (6-screen) and Lower Parel (10-screen).
For its expansion plans in the Southern and Western regions, the company recently hired former Mukta Adlabs CEO Sunil Patil as COO.
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.
