News Broadcasting
Google looks to invest $1 billion in AOL: reports
MUMBAI: Giving Microsoft the brush aside, Time Warner is reportedly in talks with Google, wherein the latter is looking at investing $1 billion for a five per cent stake in America Online (AOL).
However according to media reports, the Time Warner board still has to stamp its approval on the deal for it to come through. The board is scheduled to meet on Tuesday. The five-year deal would expand the two companies’ partnership into 2011.
The five per cent stake would be part of a wide ranging advertising partnership between AOL and Google. Google is looking at highlighting AOL’s web properties as highlighted links while AOL continues to offer Google’s search links to its users. Google also hired AOL to sell non-search ads to Google’s advertising partners.
According to a media report, Google will continue to take 20 per cent of the revenue generated when people click on the text ads in AOL Search, and AOL will take 20 per cent of the revenue from banners and other display ads it sells on the Google network.
AOL is Google’s largest customer, accounting for $420 million or 10 per cent in Google ad sales, during the first three quarters of 2005.
Under the proposed new deal, AOL will be able to sell search ads, plugging a gap in its offerings to advertisers. In addition, AOL will sell display ads on both the AOL and Google internet properties. The deal also includes the promotion of AOL content through Google’s paid search.
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.
