News Broadcasting
B4U claims tidy profit for FIFA World Cup deferred telecast on DD
As the Fifa World Cup heads for its grand finale tomorrow between perennial favourites Brazil and a determined Germany, some tallies are already being made. B4U Networks, which bought the terrestrial telecast rights from holder Taj Sports, says it managed a good profit from the event.
Speaking about the deferred telecast on national broadcaster Doordarshan, Says B4U’s chief distribution officer Debashish Dey: The tournament was not only a great brand building exercise for us, but we broke even and even managed a tidy profit out of it.”
Responding to doubts as to the how much brand benefit was garnered from it considering that B4U’s name only appeared in the credits, Dey said the telecast on DD1 with repeats on the 36 regional kendras (centres) was benefit enough.
Dey said 70 per cent of the inventories had been sold and this was because the 11 pm timing was ideal if one considered that soccer viewing essentially had a male audience. Dey’s contention was that it was only from 11 pm onwards that the TV remote was in the male hands. His point being that earlier than that it was the woman of the house that decided what was to be watched.
Ten (Taj Entertainment Network) Sports, which held the rights for India, had sold the terrestrial telecast rights to LMB Holdings (promoter of B4U Networks). B4U then thrashed out an an agreement with DD that cleared the way for the deferred telecast on DD of four matches and a daily highlights capsule.
As per the terms of the deal between Taj and LMB, the terrestrial rights allowed for transmission of four full games – the opening game, two semifinals and the finals on a six-hour delayed telecast. They also included a daily hourly highlights package, also on a six-hour delayed basis.
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.
