News Broadcasting
Americans love for media continues to grow : Census
MUMBAI: Americans spend more time watching TV, listening to the radio, surfing the Internet and reading newspapers than anything else except breathing.
Data released by the US census bureau forecasts that Americans will spend a total of 65 days watching TV next year and 41 days listening to the radio. A week each will be given to reading newspapers and surfing the internet. All that reading, surfing and listening will occupy 3,518 hours of the average American adult’s year – almost five months. The average American will spend $936 on media in the coming year.
Americans spend an average of 4 1/2 hours a day watching television, far more time than they spend on any other medium. Next come the radio and the Internet. Reading newspapers is fourth, passed this year by Internet use.
An increasing variety of cable TV channels has cut into broadcast viewers, but it has helped increase overall viewership. Before, if you looked at kids’ TV programming, it was on Saturday morning. Now there is always targeted programming available for anyone in the household.
The number of hours projected for next year in different categories are as follows:
-1,555 hours watching television, up from 1,467 in 2000. The estimate includes 678 hours watching broadcast TV and 877 watching cable and satellite.
-974 hours listening to the radio, up from 942 in 2000.
-195 hours using the Internet, up from 104.
-175 hours reading daily newspapers, down from 201.
-122 hours reading magazines, down from 135.
-106 hours reading books, down an hour.
-86 hours playing video games, up from 64.
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.
