News Broadcasting
Linear TV witnesses upsurge in viewing during lockdown
MUMBAI: Recent media reports have revealed shifts in consumers’ viewing behaviours, with individuals and families spending more time at home due to the Covid2019 pandemic. This has resulted in a spike in linear TV viewing, in terms of penetration and time spent across multiple markets and all generations.
News channels and programmes have seen a surge in viewership as news updates and government announcements on new regulations and the pandemic development become profoundly important to the public. During this period of uncertainty, satellite continues to be a reliable and cost-effective means for content delivery, serving audiences nationally and abroad with critical and timely news and information.
As Asia’s leading provider of broadcast platforms, AsiaSat strives to meet consumers’ evolving demand for content and viewing quality. Among the 550 TV and radio channels originated from more than 30 countries and regions in 30 languages delivered by the AsiaSat fleet, more than 80 are news channels, with 60 per cent of them in local languages targeting local markets as well as expatriates and travellers who want to keep abreast of the happenings in their home countries.
Over the past year, the number of HDTV channels increased across AsiaSat’s core video satellites AsiaSat 5 and AsiaSat 7, as well as its new video hotbird AsiaSat 9 at 122°E. These HDTV channels have included the Asian Action Channel, CTI Asia, ET Mall, PILI TV, Trace Sport Stars, Trace Urban, TVB Xing He and tvN Movies on AsiaSat 9, and a selection of WarnerMedia’s bouquet of regional HD channels on AsiaSat 7 including CNN, Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Warner TV, raising the share of HDTV services to 30% across the AsiaSat fleet.
“At AsiaSat, while committed to protecting the safety and health of our employees during this difficult period, we will continue supporting our customers to deliver high-quality and uninterrupted services to their audience even as demand for TV content surges unpredictably. With our growing HDTV services and wide-ranging news and entertainment programming, we are delighted to demonstrate satellite’s ability to multicast high resolution content, particularly over a vast geographical area and with a growing population of receive antennas, which is more resilient in coping with unexpected soaring demand for services than streaming TV services that were required to lower streaming quality at times of network congestion,” said Ina Lui, senior vice president, commercial, business development and strategy at AsiaSat.
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.
