News Broadcasting
BBC wins licence to show 27 digital channels
UK broadcaster BBC is now firmly in charge of making sure that the conversion from analogue to digital television in Britain proceeds smoothly. It has been awarded the three licences which were left vacant after the collapse of ITV Digital.
Tenders were invited for the licences in March after ITV Digital was forced into administration due to losses which exceeded 1 billion.
As per the 12-year deal announced by the Independent Television Commission the consortium which is led by the BBC and BSkyB can start its new digital terrestrial service later in the year.
Viewers will now get a bonanza of 27 digital free-to-view channels. In addition they will also enjoy radio and interactive services, through an existing aerial. The only cost incurred is that of a set top box for around 100.
Reports indicate that the decision to give the licences to the BBC rather than a rival bid from ITV and Channel 4 gives a fresh start to digital terrestrial television.
The Governments aim to switch off the traditional analogue signal by 2010 can only materialise if 95 per cent of homes have access to digital.
Right now less than half the number have digital. Menawhile commercial broadcasters in Britain criticised the alliance between the BBC and BSkyB as being nothing more than “digital land-grab”.
Under the BBC consortium, called Free To View, viewers will receive the five current analogue channels – BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – plus several digital services including CNN, ITV2, BBC4, and the children’s channels CBeebies and CBBC.
They will also get three Sky channels: Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel.
The corporation said it will spend 3.5 billion of licence fee payers’ money on the new service over the next 12 years, including more than 5 million a year on marketing.
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.
