News Broadcasting
APTN, Grinberg join hands to create one of the largest archival collections
LONDON: APTN Library and Grinberg Film Libraries, two of the world’s leading sources of historical footage have signed a representation deal to exchange and sell each other’s material.
The London based library and Los Angeles film libraries will begin supplying and licensing material from January 2004.
While Associated Press Television News (APTN) is said to be world’s leading video news agency with self-shot material from 1963, Grinberg collection comprises the Paramount and Pathe newsreels, which were the leading news sources of their day from 1896 to the late 1950s, says an APTN release.
APTN content development head Christopher O’Hearn, “It’s a great combination – this puts the best of the old together with the best of the new” said. “We can now offer a high quality service to anyone looking for content, from the earliest moving images to the latest satellite news.”
Grinberg’s Pathe collection is the world’s oldest moving image library dating back to 1896. The Paramount newsreel was known as “The Eyes and Ears of the World” from 1927 to 1957. Together they total more than 15 million feet of film, or 6000 hours of material. The collection boasts of movie outtakes and scenes ranging from the Blackton collection of early motion pictures to modern productions from HBO, says the release.
“APTN and GFL’s representation deal creates one of the most comprehensive sources of archival footage in the world. Together they will become a one-stop resource for every conceivable user throughout the world. In addition, as we digitise our content, the collection will also be marketing what will become one of the largest sources of still photos pulled from the Paramount and Pathe libraries, covering virtually everything that happened in the world dating back to 1896,” said Grinberg’s spokesperson Charles Bonan.
The initial stages of the deal will see the top acquisitions of each collection exchanged so that they can be provided locally. Both libraries have major digitisation projects underway which will see a broader range of content available, along with improvements in cataloguing and search ability.
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.
