News Broadcasting
Al Jazeera International announces African line-up
MUMBAI: Al Jazeera International, the long-delayed Qatar based international English news channel, today announced its full line up of bureaux and correspondents across Africa. It will have bureaux in Cairo – Egypt, Abidjan – Ivory Coast, Nairobi – Kenya, Johannesburg – South Africa and Harare – Zimbabwe.
Al Jazeera International, which is now targeting a year-end launch, will be sharing the resources of the Al Jazeera Arabic Channel’s African bureaux located in Ndjamena – Chad, Tripoli – Libya, Nouakchott – Mauritania, Rabat – Morocco, Dakar – Senegal, Mogadishu – Somalia, Johannesburg – South Africa and Khartoum – Sudan.
“Our reporting from Africa will be unparalleled. We will have more bureaux and resources dedicated to Africa than any other global broadcaster,” said Al Jazeera International managing director Nigel Parsons.
Speaking from Doha, director of news Steve Clark said, “Africa is one of the most pivotal places in the world to report from. It is a continent of hope and change.”
“We are planning other bureaux across the continent of Africa and will be announcing them in due course,” Clark continued.
“The teams we have in place show a level of dedication and understanding that I am sure will give us a distinctive edge,” said Africa bureau chief Andrew Simmons.
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.
