News Broadcasting
7 Star reaches deal with ESPN as India-Windies cricket series gets under way
Just in time. Seven Star Cable Network, which was the only MSO in Mumbai still to sign on to the new subscriber regime of ESPN Star Sports, has finally thrashed out an agreement with the sports broadcaster. Following the agreement, telecast resumed on 11 April.
According to the information available, 7 Star agreed to increase its declared connectivity from 7,000 to 10,000 (a figure that works out to 10 per cent of the estimated 100,000 homes the MSO services).
The contract between ESPN Software and 7 Star is similar to the one the sports broadcaster signed recently with the Hinduja Group’s InCableNet. The deal runs through till 31 December 2003 and there have been clauses included that allow for ramping up of the declared subscriber base in a phased manner.
With the figure decided upon, sports buffs in western Mumbai, who had to make do without the sports channel while the broadcaster and the MSO wrestled connectivity figures and hiked rates, now again have access to the India-West Indies series that began 11 April.
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.
