News Broadcasting
Eric Freeman named Walt Disney Internet Group vice president technology
MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) has appointed Eric Freeman as vice president, technology, with responsibility for the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online.
Freeman will lead the charge in driving technology development of the web properties and new media activities for The Walt Disney company’s theme parks and resort hotel properties, including information websites, e-commerce and online attractions.
Freeman returns to the Walt Disney Internet Group after a two-year stint with O’Reilly Media Inc., where he co-directed and co-authored the publishing firm’s “Head First” series of technical reference books, including the award-winning Head First Design Patterns and the bestselling Head First HTML.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Eric back to our team. There are few people with his level of credentials in theoretical and practical technology, and his forward-thinking abilities will be a valuable asset in helping us stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly growing and changing category,” said Walt Disney Internet Group executive vice president and chief technology officer Douglas Parish.
Freeman originally joined the Walt Disney Internet Group in 2000, where he initially acted as a director in the company’s portal division. He later served as director of engineering, driving development in the areas of broadband, wireless, media content distribution, wireless technology and content syndication. This includes co-inventing WDIG Motion, a proprietary, patent-pending Internet technology allowing broadband users to view high-quality video, embedded in standard Web pages, without impacting narrowband users’ experiences.
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.
