News Broadcasting
EMI, BBC Worldwide in deal to unlock music archive
MUMBAI: EMI Music and UK pubcaster the BBC’s commercial arm BBC Worldwide have struck a deal that will see thousands of hours of pop and rock music content, locked away for years, released to the public for the very first time.
The arrangement allows the British-owned music company and its artists to release material from the corporation’s extensive archive of TV and radio recordings across multiple platforms including digital.
In return BBC Worldwide has the opportunity to use EMI artists’ performances to create new programming which can be sold to international broadcasters and consumers.
BBC Worldwide has also acquired the rights to distribute the content direct to consumers via any of their own future digital services.
EMI and BBC Worldwide are identifying programme material relating to artists in the EMI family which can be used to create a wide range of products for global release across multiple platforms.
The EMI family includes artists such as Kylie Minogue, The Beach Boys, David Bowie, Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Lily Allen and Pink Floyd. Under the deal EMI will have the opportunity to include BBC recordings from their artists as part of DVDs, CDs and digital downloads whilst BBC Worldwide has the opportunity to drive revenue through international radio and TV programme sales, as well as on-demand streaming from those very same artists.
Both companies will also receive reciprocal royalties for each other’s sales.
This unlocking of the BBC archive will make vast quantities of content available in all formats for consumers to enjoy both in the UK and internationally.
The deal is part of BBC Worldwide Music’s strategy to derive greater value from the wealth of music-related material in the corporation’s archive. The BBC archive covers the entire history of rock and pop.
The deal will look to build upon the release of BBC content previously licensed to EMI by artists such as Coldplay, David Bowie, Queen, Roxy Music and Depeche Mode. Some of the EMI archive gems include live radio performances from Pink Floyd, including a session from 1967 featuring tracks from their first album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn; Coldplay on Inside Tracks performing a stripped down version of their first hit “Shiver”; and an Omnibus special titled Cracked Actor from 1975 devoted to David Bowie.
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.
