News Broadcasting
BBC, ITV to share coverage of Euro 2008
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC and ITV have announced plans for shared coverage of the UEFA Euro 2008 Championships in Austria and Switzerland.
Live coverage of the group stage will begin on 7 June with the BBC broadcasting the opening match between Switzerland and the Czech Republic, and ITV broadcasting the later match between Portugal and Turkey.
During the latter stage of the group phase where matches are played simultaneously, games will be shown live on BBC One, BBCi, ITV1 and ITV channels. Both broadcasters will simulcast all of their games online.
Both broadcasters will show live coverage of two quarter finals and will show one semi-final each, with ITV taking the first pick.
The final will be shown live on BBC One on Sunday 29 June, with highlights on ITV1 later in the evening.
BBC director of sport Roger Mosey said, “We’re confident many millions of people will enjoy the tournament on BBC television, radio and online. There will be plenty of familiar faces on the pitch, and some great matches in prospect.”
ITV director of news and sport Mark Sharman said, “Euro 2008 is one of the highlights of a huge year of live football on ITV and, with some of the world’s best players taking part, we are looking forward to an exciting tournament.”
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.
