News Broadcasting
CBS announces mobile tie up with Verizon
MUMBAI: US broadcaster CBS’s shows CBS News, CSI, Survivor, David Letterman and Entertainment Tonight are coming to Verizon Wireless V Cast phones in the US this month.
CBS Digital Media VP wireless Cyriac Roeding says, At the intersection of the mobile phone and the television lies tremendous programming, promotion and brand extension potential. This deal with Verizon Wireless represents a major step for us into mobile entertainment and another point of contact with the consumer to promote our great content brands.V Cast is a pioneer service in wireless video, which makes it an ideal platform to launch our content into the mobile world.
This marks CBS first venture as far as presenting its content on cell phones is concerned.
Throughout December, V Cast subscribers will begin receiving video news segments from both CBS News and Paramount TVs Entertainment Tonight produced specifically for mobile phones as well as preview clips of shows like CSI, The Amazing Race, The King of Queens and Late Show with David Letterman.
The CBS News segments for V CAST will include breaking stories, as well as features from broadcasts such as CBS Evening News and The Early Show.
V Cast from Verizon Wireless claims to be the first wireless broadband consumer multimedia service in the US. It allows customers to view video clips on demand. V Cast runs on Verizon Wireless high-speed wireless broadband network Evolution-Data Optimised (EV-DO) . The V Cast coverage area, which mirrors the Verizon Wireless EV-DO network, is available to more than 140 million Americans.
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.
