News Broadcasting
ITV claims 70 million viewers for Rugby World Cup
LONDON: UK broadcaster ITV has stated that over 70 million viewers have so far watched its coverage of the Rugby World Cup from Australia. In India the event is airing on ESPN Star Sports. .
ITV is showing all 48 matches live. The upcoming weekend sees the start of the knockout phase. On 8 November New Zealand will play South Africa. This will air on ITV2, followed by Australia versus Scotland on ITV1.
An ITV spokesman was quoted in an official release saying, “The figures reflect the growing appetite that viewers in the UK have for the Rugby World Cup and have surpassed our expectations for the group stages. We have been treated to some exciting matches over the last couple of weekends. Now the knockout stages are upon us were looking forward to more excellent audiences, especially with all four home unions live on ITV1.”.
England’s three group matches on ITV1 have provided the largest audiences. The match against South Africa receiving the biggest figure with a peak of 6.1m and an average of 5.3 million the highest for a rugby match on TV this year. The game against Samoa peaked at 5.6 million and averaged 4.95 million. The Brits opening game against Georgia saw a peak of 5.3 million viewers and an average of 4.5 million
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.
