News Broadcasting
Sahara to take FCCB route for raising $50 million
MUMBAI: Sahara One Media and Entertainment Ltd has decided to take the foreign currency convertible bond (FCCB) route to raise around $50 million (Rs 2.2 billion).
“We are in the final stages of documentation for issue of FCCBs. We plan to raise around $50 million,” says a source in Sahara One Media and Entertainment Ltd.
Earlier the shareholders of Sahara had approved the issue of securities in the international market in the form of FCCBs, global depository receipts (GDRs) or other securities through public issue, private placements or preferential allotment. Sahara had also taken an enabling clause to raise up to $50 million.
The funds will be deployed for movie production, launch of a music channel, content acquisition for Hindi movie channel Filmy and general entertainment channel Sahara One.
Sahara has already tied up Rs 1.58 billion by diluting stake to investors. While C Sivasankaran’s Aircel Televentures Ltd. (ATL) has put in Rs 1.2 billion for acquiring 14.98 per cent stake, Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd (publishers of The Times of India) has invested Rs 378 million for a six per cent equity. Sahara is in the process of issuing a preferential allotment of 322.5 million equity shares to ATL with a face value of Rs 10 each at a price of Rs 372 per share.
Sahara is also in talks to rope in a strategic investor. After divesting stake to ATL, the promoters holding in Sahara stands at 73 per cent. While Bennett, Coleman and Company’s holding is a little less than six per cent, the balance is with the public.
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.
