News Broadcasting
Viacom’s Q2 operating income up 10%
MUMBAI: Media conglomerate Viacom, which owns MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount, among other entities, has reported its results for the second quarter ended 30 June 2004.
Viacom’s second quarter results were led by double-digit revenue and operating income increases in the company’s cable networks and television segments, as
well as revenue growth in every business segment.
For the second quarter of 2004, Viacom reported operating income of $1.4 billion. This marked an increase of 10 per cent from $1.3 billion for the same quarter last year. It also announced a 7 per cent revenue increase to $6.8 billion from $6.4 billion for the same quarter last year.
Operating income gains were led by increases of 23 per cent in Cable Networks and 35 per cent in Television. Advertising revenues went up by 11 per cent. For the six months ended 30 June 2004 operating income increased by 14 per cent to $2.6 billion from $2.3 billion
The company continues to believe it is on track to deliver full year revenue growth of 5 per cent.
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.
