News Broadcasting
‘All or nothing’, Vivendi tells bidders ahead of Monday deadline
MUMBAI: Bid for all or nothing! that’s the message from media conglomerate Vivendi Universal.
The deadline for receiving bids is just two days away and this assertion by the heavily indebted media powerhouse appears more hopeful stance than definite fact at the moment. One banker quoted by Reuters says Vivendi would inevitably receive bids for individual units.
Vivendi Universal CFO Jacques Espinasse has been quoted as saying that the company was facing a combination of up to 36 possible offers but only a few were “interested in the whole thing”.
Whoever is willing to bid for Vivendi lock, stock and barrel though, could get it for anywhere between $ 12 to 18 billion, depending on how many make a bid for the whole package (at this point in time whether there is even one is debatable though). The package on offer includes Hollywood’s Universal Studios, cable television channels USA and Sci Fi, and the Universal theme parks. The video games division, Vivendi Universal Games, remains somewhat in flux. While not part of the VUE sale, now, it could be included if a buyer pays the right price.
The assets are reportedly being eyed by six bidders, which include US media major Viacom, Hollywood studio MGM, NBC’s parent company General Electric, former Universal Group owners the Bronfman family, billionaire oil magnate Marvin Davis’s consortium Universal Partners and John Malone’s Liberty Media. The latter three are also reported to be interested in Vivendi’s music business.
With the music industry in a tailspin, Vivendi has not insisted that music be part of the sale but it would be reasonable to assume that that interest in music will work to their advantage in bidding.
Vivendi Universal’s net debt at the end of May was estimated at around 14 billion ($16.5 billion), compared with 15.3 billion ($18.09 billion) at the end of March.
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.
