News Broadcasting
Animax launches on Hong Kong Cable
MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Entertainment has launched its animation channel Animax on Hong Kong Cable.
The channel is seen on five dedicated services in Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Asia, South East Asia and Japan across Asia.
Hong Kong Cable Television Limited is Hong Kong’s leading pay television service provider, offering a 31 channel service, to about 540,000 subscribers. The Company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of i-CABLE Communications Limited, Hong Kong’s only fully integrated communications company that owns and operates one of the two broadband networks with near universal coverage; creates its own multi-media contents; and offers pay television and Internet access including broadband services concurrently.
The total household reach Animax garnered across Asia comes around 14 million. According to a World Screen report, the channel has become the leading international channel on Kabelvision in Indonesia.
Animax was able to achieve a reach of over eight million cable and satellite homes within four days of its launch in India.
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.
