News Broadcasting
Discovery set to launch 3 lifestyle channels in India: report
MUMBAI: Discovery Networks International is set to launch a portfolio of lifestyle channels outside the US and has chosen India as the country to start with.
The India launch of the channels is scheduled within the next “90 days and counting!” worldscreen.com has reported.
Discovery Networks International president Dawn L. McCall is quoted in an interview to worldscreen.com as saying, “India attains prominence among the potential contenders because of the socio-economic developments taking place in the country.” McCall pointed to the encouraging DTH scenario also as one of the reasons why the Indian management had been advocating the case for a lifestyle network in India.
Efforts made by Indiantelevision.com to get in touch with Discovery India MD Deepak Shourie for his comments on the reported development proved unsuccessful till the time of writing this report.
Discovery Networks International has identified the audience segments for its three core channels with each targeting a distinct demographic — general adult audience, male demographic and female viewers, McCall said. The channels will be formed from existing networks Discovery Travel & Adventure, Discovery Home & Living and Discovery Health, according to the report.
A key element of the programming strategy for these channels would be localisation, McCall was quoted as saying.
McCall didn’t rule out chances of the company going for more than three lifestyle networks per market.
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.
