News Broadcasting
BBC World asserts victory over CNN on Pope coverage
MUMBAI: In a media release, BBC World has claimed that the channel was the most watched international news channel in India for the coverage of Pope John Paul II’s death and funeral. It says, 4.8 million people tuned to its coverage ahead of the 1.8 million people who watched the CNN coverage.
Quoting the TAM data, the channel says, viewers also watched BBC World for longer with the average time spent on the channel being 19 minutes compared to CNN viewers who spent an average of 12 minutes.
On the day of the Pope’s death (Sunday, 3 April), BBC World reached nearly 2.3 million people, more than double the number of people who viewed CNN, thus attracting 1.2 million additional viewers, says the release.
BBC World senior manager Dezma deMelo comments: “BBC World’s reach increased by 71 per cent across India on 3 April and 8 April, compared to research data from the previous week. Once again, viewers in India chose BBC World to keep themselves updated, reflecting the channel’s comprehensive analysis of international events.”
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.
