News Broadcasting
ABP News becomes principal sponsor of UP Yoddha
Mumbai: ABP News has signed a deal to become the principal sponsor of UP Yoddha team for the 2021-22 season.
As a part of this deal, ABP News’ logo will feature prominently on the UP Yoddha players’ jerseys, allowing the news channel to build brand recognition amongst younger audiences and sports aficionados across the country. Giving a boost to the partnership is the recent announcement of the acquisition of the star player of the league – Pradeep Narwal, by UP Yoddha.
This association is also crucial as it comes at a time when the state of Uttar Pradesh will be heading into polls, which creates its own buzz around activities associated with the state, said the news channel in a statement.
“We are extremely excited to be supporting UP Yoddha, one of the most promising teams in the Pro Kabaddi League this season,” said ABP Network, chief executive officer, Avinash Pandey. “Kabaddi, as a sport, has grown significantly over the years. The Pro Kabaddi league has popularised the Indian-origin sport even more and has created a strong connection with sports lovers and younger audiences. Alongside UP Yoddha, we hope to make this season of Pro Kabaddi an incredibly engaging, memorable, and entertaining spectacle.”
“We believe that with the help of this partnership we will drive great support for the franchise UP Yoddha, which holds the flag high being the first team out of UP in any league sport in the country,” said GMR League Games, chief executive officer, Col Vinod Bisht. “ABP News is the leader in Hindi news Genre and the partnership gives us the opportunity to undertake joint initiatives and promote the sport in the state at the ground level. We hope this is going to be the start of a long and mutually rewarding partnership between two big organisations.”
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: 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.
