News Broadcasting
BCCI to finalise India cricket telecast deal by mid-January
NEW DELHI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will finalise awarding of telecast rights in approximately 21 days time by when some uncertainties on government norms relating to broadcasting are likely to get cleared.
We should be finalizing the telecast deals by mid-January by when more clarity will come on issues like sharing of sporting events with Doordarshan if a private broadcaster wins the rights, BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi said today.
However, the tenders for the telecast rights will be floated towards month-end, which will also give the BCCI time to study the various pros and cons relating to broadcasting issues vis-?-vis new media norms.
But buoyed by the more than enthusiastic response for team sponsorship rights, the BCCI expects the telecast rights to fetch good money.
At one level, I dont think the Doordarshan angle should be a hindrance as telecasting the matches on DD will mean more eyeballs for all sponsors, said Modi, whose company Modi Entertainment Network used to handle the distribution of Ten Sports in India till some months back.
We expect the telecast bids to be on the higher side, he added.
According to latest government norms, all sporting events of national importance will have to be shared on a mandatory basis with Doordarshan by private satellite broadcasters. This issue has raised the hackles of the industry and the likes of Ten Sports and ESPN Star Sports have moved court against such stipulations that also cover events for which deals had been signed earlier.
Last time round the BCCI, under a different regime, had invited bids for Indian cricket in 2004, Zee Telefilms had topped the charts with an initial quote $ 260 million, followed closely by ESS at $ 230 million. ESS had subsequently upped its offer to $ 308 million which Zee, being the initial highest bidder had matched and was awarded the rights. The matter had then landed in the courts after ESS, on technical grounds, contested the awarding of the rights to Zee. Since then the telecast issue has been in and out of various Indian courts.
Interestingly, todays bidding process for Indian cricket teams sponsorship rights at a five star hotel in Delhi was observed keenly by representatives from Cricket Australia, including its chairman.
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.
