News Broadcasting
B.A.G’s News24 is now available on Tata Sky
MUMBAI: B.A.G Films and Media’s newly launched Hindi news channel is now available on direct-to-home (DTH) platform Tata Sky.
Currently a free to air channel, News24 is expected to go pay by next month.
B.A.G Films and Media MD Anurradha Prasad, “Television viewers will have one more platform to watch News24 wherein Tata Sky would definitely work as a catalyst in better brand positioning of the Channel. Going forward, we are confident of bringing back the discerning Hindi viewers to watch News24 as our message to all the viewers is that News is Back.”
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.
