News Broadcasting
France launches an international news channel
MUMBAI: With the aim of offering a viewpoint different from global news channels CNN and BBC the French government has launched its international news channel France 24. The channel has two feeds – French and English.
The channel’s CEO Alain de Pouzilhac ws quoted in media repotrs saying that the channel will focus on in-depth reporting and debate, culture and the art of living. Initial coverage will extend to 75 million households in over 90 countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and should expand to North America and Asia in the near future.
The aim of France 24 is to offer a ‘third way’. This would be an alternative to the bipolar discourse by Anglo-Saxon BBC World and CNN on one hand and Middle Eastern Al-Jazeera on the other. Media reports add that although the France 24 website is trilingual in French, English and Arabic television programmes in Arabic will only begin from the middle of next year. Spanish shows will launch in 2009.
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.
