News Broadcasting
TV Today FY’11 net slips 60% on slow rev growth
MUMBAI: TV Today Network, which runs leading Hindi news channel Aaj Tak, has managed a 2.96 per cent topline increase in a difficult fiscal where some of the television news broadcasters have struggled to scale up revenues.
A slow revenue growth, the merger of the loss-making radio operations and a 11.63 per cent increase in expenses dragged down TV Today’s net profit by 59.75 per cent.
TV Today posted a net profit of Rs 124.24 million for the fiscal ended 31 March 2011, down from Rs 308.67 million in the earlier year.
Income from operations was marginally up at Rs 2.93 billion, from Rs 2.85 billion in FY’10.
The company’s expenditure stood at Rs 2.83 billion, up from previous year’s Rs 2.54 billion.
While almost all segments of expenditure saw a marginal increase, TV Today’s spent on advertising, marketing and distribution went up by 39.76 per cent to Rs 842.65 million (from Rs 602.9 million).
The company’s operating profit fell to Rs 98.48 million, from Rs 309.21 million a year ago.
The income generated by the TV Broadcast segment stood at Rs 2.89 billion, while operating segment from the segment was at Rs 367.58 million.
Meanwhile, the radio segment revenue stood at Rs 42.15 million, while operating loss stood at Rs 219.08 million.
The firm made an advance payment of Rs 455 million to Mail Today Newspapers to enter the daily newspaper space. The venture is currently notching up losses.
For the fourth-quarter ended 31 March, TV Today has posted a net profit of Rs 95.03 million, as against a net loss of Rs 100.84 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
The revenue during the quarter went up 6.95 per cent to Rs 843.47 (from Rs 788.71 million), while expenses came down to Rs 735.25 million (from Rs 843.61 million).
The revenue and operating profit from the TV broadcasting segment during the quarter stood at Rs 825.91 million and Rs 180.12 million respectively.
The radio division posted a revenue of Rs 17.56 million and an operating loss of Rs 50.47 million during the quarter.
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: 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.
