News Broadcasting
CNN-IBN ties up with PTV sports for Indo-Pak bout
MUMBAI: A World Cup match between India and Pakistan is not just a game – with emotions running high, players and fans alike do not like yielding even an inch. Banking on this emotion is CNN-IBN and IBN7 have joined hands with PTV Sports Pakistan to present Love of Cricket and RannYudh respectively.
Love of Cricket and RannYudh are unique joint shows that will preview and review the key India vs Pakistan match and capture all the highs and lows of the game in the greatest detail.
The shows will run live on all three channels – CNN-IBN, IBN7 and PTV Sports giving viewers a unique experience of witnessing discussions and debates between experts and anchors from both sides on key players, strategies and critical game moments.
The panel of guests include Krish Srikkanth, Kiran More, Sarfaraz Nawaz, Basit Ali and Saqlain Mushtaq amongst others.
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.
