News Broadcasting
Crisil develops methodology to grade TV, film productions
MUMBAI: The mantra in the entertainment industry today is corporatisation. Another move in that direction was made with the announcement yesterday by Credit Rating and Information Services of India Ltd (Crisil) that it would grade film and television software productions to help lenders evaluate funding for upcoming entertainment projects.
“The comprehensive and objective analytical framework would assist banks, institutions and other lenders in evaluating film and television software producers,” Crisil was quoted as saying in a statement.
It is only recently that lending institutions, the Industrial Development Bank of India, being the most noted example, have stepped in to fund film projects based on clearly laid down norms.
Lenders could use the framework to systematically classify risks and objectively assess various risk issues before determining their exposure levels and interest rates for the entertainment industry.
For borrowers, who have had to source funds at exorbitant interest rates from the parallel market, the grading framework will act as a key facilitator in accessing institutional funds.
For television software producers, which are generally constituted as corporate entities, the grade would indicate Crisil’s opinion on credit worthiness of the entity.
Thus, the grade would reflect relative ability of the rated company to meet graded debt obligations, it said.
In case of film producers, it would assign a grade for a specific movie indicating the rating agency’s opinion on the producer’s ability to complete a particular project and recover costs incurred.
It is, therefore, possible that different movies of the same producer could get different grades, the statement added.
Crisil carried out the exercise on behalf of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Earlier, CII had produced the first authoritative “EnterMedia 2001” report, which determined the need for this project with Crisil.
“While the overall analytical approach includes an assessment of business risk, financial risk and management capabilities, the methodology derives its robustness from the level of detail in incorporating entertainment industry-specific parameters and benchmarks. Crisil has held active consultations with a wide number of industry players in developing the methodology,” the statement said.
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.
