News Broadcasting
BBC World fastest growing news channel: IATS survey
MUMBAI: The latest International Air Travellers Survey (IATS) Asia -Pacific 2002 reveals that BBC World is the fastest growing international news channel in the region.
The study which measures the viewership of international channels and readership of international publications among international air travellers revealed that BBC World’s viewership has increased from six per cent to 13 per cent, a BBC release says. In contrast CNN’s viewership has dropped from 26.1 per cent to 19.8 per cent and that of CNBC from 10.4 per cent to 6.9 per cent, the release further says.
The IATS survey, which included Japan for the first time, found that BBC World ranked second out of the eight channels among those interviewed in Osaka Airport, the release says.
The survey found that among visitors traveling to Asia from the rest of the world , the gap between those watching BBC World and CNN has narrowed down by more than half. It further discovered that in terms of audience profile BBC World’s monthly viewers are more likely than those of CNN to be frequent travelers who fly first or business class
and are involved in business purchases, says the release.
“Travel has always been an important part of our viewers’ lives and BBC World has reflected that in its schedule with award winning weekend travelogue programmes such as Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure, Great Railway Journeys and Benedict’s Allen’s Edge of Blue Heaven all forming part of our ongoing VOYAGER strand. We have combined this with the weekly travel business programme , Fast Track, for business travellers alongside the popular leisure series Holiday,” BBC World , Head of Research and Planning, Jeremy Nye was quoted as saying in the release.
The IATS Asia Pacific 2002 was carried out in June and July 2002 among a sample of 11,615 travelers aged 18 and above departing on scheduled international flights from eight major airports: Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Osaka, Seoul, Singapore and Taipei.
The study measures the viewership of international channels and readership of international publications among international air travelers.
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.
