News Broadcasting
Balaji Telefilms opts for Deloitte, Haskins & Sells as auditors
MUMBAI: Leading television software production house Balaji Telefilms has appointed Deloitte Haskins & Sells (DHS) as its auditor.
The Balaji board has already approved the appointment and all that remains is for its formalisation which is expected to go through at the company’s AGM scheduled for 23 August, Ajay Patadia, company secretary told indiantelevision.com.
Balaji’s auditing has been managed by Dinesh Shah, Chartered Accountants, till now. Also associated with Balaji on matters accounting have been Snehal & Associates. That association continues.
DHS is a member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT), one of the fastest growing Big Five professional services firms in the world.
Patadia also dismissed speculation in the industry that Balaji had offloaded more stake to a foreign fund in the last ten days.
It may be recalled that Balaji sold 10.11 per cent equity to some six foreign funds to improve liquidity in the stock on 29 April. The promoters’ holding in Balaji post sale stood at 57.8 per cent post-sale.
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.
