News Broadcasting
China emerges as world’s 2nd largest radio market
MUMBAI: With over 1,000 broadcasters for the 1.3 billion people in 340 million families, next only to the United States, China has become the world’s second largest radio broadcasting market says a study conducted by Nielsen Media Research.
The market rating by Nielsen Media Research says half of China’s population aged above 15 listen to radio every week.In capital Beijing, nearly 50 per cent of the residents listen to the radio for 14.5 hours a week on an average. In Shanghai, 93 per cent of the citizens tune in radio programmes for an average 14 hours a week. The figure is close to cities like Sydney and Singapore, executive director for the company’s Asia-Pacific affairs, Mark Neely said.
Radio has always been an important means of communication and advertising in China despite the strong impact of the internet and television reports the company’s rating.
The diverse and colourful programmes provided by local radio stations, as well as the growing number of private car owners in China who often tune in for news and music during journeys have resulted in China emerging in the number two position.
News broadcasts also being very popular in Beijing and Shanghai,the study reveals that the road traffic news of Beijing Communications Radio and the morning news of Shanghai People’s Broadcasting Station draw the largest number of listeners in the two cities respectively.
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.
