News Broadcasting
BBC Worldwide reaches the Middle East on three major platforms
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC’s commercial arm BBC Worldwide has announced that two channels, BBC Prime and BBC Food, are now successfully established on three key media platforms in the Middle East. The announcement was made at the Gulf News Ideal Home Show in Dubai.
Entertainment channel BBC Prime is available to audiences on the Orbit Satellite Television and Radio Network across the entire region, and via cable, on E-Vision in the UAE. Orbit, which positions itself as the world’s first fully digital, multi-channel and multi lingual pay television platform, owns and broadcasts on 33 television channels and 20 music radio stations to the Middle East and North Africa, while E-Vision is the only cable TV provider in the UAE.
BBC Prime’s presence on these two platforms is essential for the success and growth of the channels in the region. The channel delivers the best of British entertainment. Highlights for the new season include live coverage of the Bafta awards, the dramas Canterbury Tales and A Thing Called Love and comedies like Little Britain and The Kumars at No. 42.
BBC Food launched on Showtime. BBC Food brings viewers hot tips from celebrity chefs, including All The Queens Cooks and Saturday Kitchen’s Antony Worrall Thompson and Lesley Waters on Ready Steady Cook, and plenty of gourmet dishes and exotic flavours to tempt the taste buds from around the globe.
BBC Worldwide director of channels Wayne Dunsford said, “The successful relationships we have cemented with Orbit, E-Vision and Showtime, demonstrate a commitment to broadcasting quality, BBC content in the region. We are delighted to be working with the leading networks in the Middle East, and are proud to bring all four media players together at the Gulf News Ideal Home Show.”
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.
