News Broadcasting
CNN warms to India-specific news channel?
It all seems to be happening on the news channel front. The latest on this is that global news channel CNN International, whose parent company is AOL Time Warner, is reported to be seriously looking at launching an India-specific channel in the not-too distant future.
This was revealed to indiantelevision.com this evening by a senior executive of CNN Asia Pacific. The channel executive said CNN may either go solo or in partnership.
CNN has in the recent past reportedly been in talks with the Prannoy Roy-led NDTV to start an Indian service, but apparently the two have decided not tie the nuptial knot and have decided to go their own ways. NDTV is currently going through its own pending divorce pangs with Star India, which has decided to set up its own infrastructure and news channel under Ravina Raj Kohli.
CNN had earlier been in serious talks with the leading Indian news network, the Living Media-run Aaj Tak. Industry sources say CNN and Aaj Tak had wooed each other for a while, and a pre-nuptial agreement had almost been signed, but differences on certain issues resulted in the arrangement falling flat.
With the two potential matches not turning out right and the woes of its own parent AOL Time Warner globally, the news was that CNN had put its India news channel marriage and conception plans on hold. But now with the CNN Asia Pacific exec saying that the US news network is still hungering after an India foray, the action in the news business is likely to hot up further.
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.
