News Broadcasting
Fitch downgrades TV18
MUMBAI: Credit ratings agency Fitch has downgraded TV18, raising concerns over the company’s financial profile over the nine-month period of the current fiscal and deployment of large cash balances to support subsidiaries and group companies.
TV18’s operating loss in FY’09 on a consolidated basis has been primarily due to the significant launch expenses and development costs of Web 18, and to some extent due to expenses related to its print media businesses including one time charges.
Also disturbing is the pressure on profitability on TV18’s core news operations business due to a significant slowdown in the renewal of advertising contracts.
“The company has utilised a substantial portion of its liquid balances (around Rs 6.76 billion as of FY’08 and Rs 2.6 billion as of 9-month period of FY’09) in investments in group companies, primarily in Infomedia18 and direct investments into other group companies,” Fitch said.
Fitch has downgraded the rating to ‘BBB’ from ‘A.’ It has also lowered its rating outlook to negative from stable.
Fitch ratings on the following instruments
Rs 1.25 billion long-term loan – Downgraded to BBB (from A)
Rs 670.1 million term-loan – Downgraded to BBB (from A)
Rs 850 million fund-based working capital limits – Downgraded to BBB/F2 (from A/F1)
Rs 70 million non fund-based working capital limits – Downgraded to F2 (from F1)
Rs 250 million commercial paper/short-term debt programme – Downgraded to F2 (from F1)
TV18 has raised fresh debt to meet the increased requirement of working capital and support its investments. “Net debt levels increased substantially to Rs 6.6 billion at the 9-month period of FY’09 compared to negative net debt levels at FY’08,” Fitch said.
On the positive note, however, is the possible gain of advertising revenues from the upcoming elections and the budget coverage after the new government is formed.
“TV18 has also been actively undertaking cost cutting measures across its businesses, which along with the one-time nature of some of Web18’s losses due to initial launch expenses and charging off development costs, could help stem operating losses. In addition, TV18 has put on hold its earlier investment/expansion plans into new businesses such as print media, which could reduce the extent of negative free cash flows to be funded through FY’10,” Fitch said.
“Realisation of benefits from the company’s ongoing operational initiatives, coupled with a revival in advertising revenues materially benefiting credit metrics could lead to the outlook being revised back to stable, as could material reductions in net debt levels through equity infusions and/or monetisation of equity stakes in subsidiaries/group companies,” the ratings agency added.
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.
