News Broadcasting
SET India defers acquisition of SET Singapore
MUMBAI: Sony Entertainment Television India has deferred the acquisition of sister company SET Singapore as its proposed initial public offering (IPO) is unlikely to happen for at least a year.
The decision to put off restructuring of the holding was taken because it would have attracted capital gains tax. “As the IPO is not happening now, we have decided to put on hold the buying of SET Singapore. The proposed restructuring transaction would have attracted capital gains tax,” says a company source.
SET India had obtained clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to acquire 100 per cent shares of SET Singapore through a share swap transaction. According to the proposal, one share of SET India was to be exchanged for 16 shares of SET Singapore. Post-restructuring, 60.65 per cent of the SET India equity would be with the Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) entities, 19.83 per cent with non-resident Indians and overseas corporate bodies, 7.68 per cent with foreign institutional investors and 11.84 per cent with Indian shareholders.
SET India’s proposed IPO is also on hold, the source says. SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta, however, refused to comment on the issue. The company has long been weighing the option of going for an IPO.
According to the source, Dasgupta had made a presentation to Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) chairman and CEO Michael Lynton a few months ago on SET India’s growth prospects. In his presentation, he had listed an IPO as one of SET India’s plans. “SPE’s new CEO had called for presentations from its different entities. A few months back, Dasgupta earmarked SET India’s growth plans as including an IPO,” says the source.
SET India plans to acquire SET Singapore and consolidate operations before going in for an IPO. SET Singapore has invested in acquisition of television serials and Hindi feature films, besides ICC telecast rights for India and other parts of Asia till 2007, including two World Cup tournaments. In its FIPB application, Sony had said: “All major investments of SET Singapore are now close to maturity and are likely to become profitable in the near future. The benefits of these investments would accrue to SET India in the coming years through the process of consolidation. This will increase SET India’s valuation.”
The consolidation process, according to the source, will start only when SET India is more definite on when it is going to launch its IPO.
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.
