News Broadcasting
BBC World News encrypts across APAC
MUMBAI: The BBC has encrypted the SD feed of its 24 hour international news channel, BBC World News, across the APAC region.
The move aims to bring the SD feed in line with the HD offering and counter piracy by ensuring that consumers can now only view the channel through approved suppliers. The encryption has been through a two month testing phase and will be enforced across all 119 sites in the region by the end of January.
BBC World News director of distribution Colin Lawrence said, “We are constantly looking for ways to improve the service we offer our partners and affiliates across APAC and this is the latest in a long line of investments we’re making to further strengthen our international news offering in the region and ensure that our commercial relationships are fully protected.”
In September, a new state-of-the-art digital newsroom and studio opened in Singapore and saw all of BBC World News’ Asia broadcasts switch to HD. The facilities, which are the main hub for BBC World News and bbc.com in Asia, bring the BBC’s news, business and digital teams together.
The BBC also appointed Karishma Vaswani as its new Asia business correspondent and launched bbc.jp – a Japanese-language version of its global website bbc.com.
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: 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.
