News Broadcasting
News Corp,Telecom Italia to acquire Telepiu
NEW YORK, PARIS: News Corporation and Telecom Italia have signed a definitive agreement with Vivendi Universal and the Canal+ Group to acquire Telepiu, the Italian pay-TV business.
The transaction consideration at signing is 920 million, consisting of the assumption of up to 450 million in debt and a cash payment of 470 million for the shares of Telepiu. This cash payment will be adjusted downward by the amount of outstanding accounts payable at closing. As of today, the accounts payable stand at approximately 200 million. It is anticipated that at closing, total consideration before the accounts payable adjustment will be 893 million, reflecting continuing debt reduction at Telepiu between the signing of today’s agreement and the anticipated closing.
The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be completed by the end of the calendar year, whereupon Telepiu will be combined with Stream, the Italian pay-TV platform jointly owned by News Corporation and Telecom Italia, and renamed Sky Italia. News Corporation will hold an 80.1 per cent equity interest in Sky Italia, and Telecom Italia will hold a 19.9 percent equity interest.
The acquisition consideration includes the various rights to telecast certain future Italian soccer matches, which have previously been paid for by Telepiu, as well as the rights to two terrestrial television licenses. The combined platform will be required to sell the terrestrial television station licenses. As part of the acquisition agreement, all litigation between the parties, including Streams litigation against Telepiu and Canal+s litigation against NDS, will be suspended immediately and permanently withdrawn when the transaction closes.
J.P. Morgan and Mediobanca have acted as financial advisers to News Corporation in connection with this transaction. Lehman Brothers have acted as financial advisers to Vivendi Universal.
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.
