News Broadcasting
Indiagames partners with Airtel to launch ‘Games on Demand’ service
MUMBAI: Indiagames has launched its new service ‘Games on Demand’ with Airtel Broadband and telephone services. The service was launched with cricketing maestro Sachin Tendulkar playing an online rally game.
This service offers legal games at a bare minimum monthly subscription fee of just Rs. 199. Indiagames has partnered with a number of leading games publishers like Microsoft, Atari, Playfirst, Alawar, Merscomm, Cenega, Meridian, Techland, amongst others, to be able to bring a variety of premium single and multiplayer games, which include popular titles such as Age of Empires, Driv3R and Flight Simulator to this service, states an official release.
Commenting on the launch of its Games on Demand service (G.o.D), Indiagames CEO Vishal Gondal said, “With over 85 per cent of games in India being sold illegally, we believe that with our unparalleled price offering we will significantly expand the segment of legitimate sales and bring the experience of high quality online gaming to millions of gamers in India. Our online gaming service would give consumers a legitimate reason to opt for a broadband service, thus accelerating the growth of the broadband user base in India”
“Today, customers are looking for rich content to enhance the overall broadband experience. As a leading service provider, we aim to offer the hottest on-demand content through as many channels as possible,” says Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services CMO Akshay Kumar. He added, “Online gaming is fast gaining popularity across the world and with the Games on Demand service on Airtel, we are gearing up to give our customers a cool and enhanced gaming experience with the power of a high-speed network.”
The G.o.D. service offers advantages like high speed downloads without additionally charging for data transfer during download, multiplayer compatible games, automatic patching and security. To further enhance the value proposition Airtel and Indiagames will be offering the service with all its features on a free trial basis for the first fifteen days. To experience this service, consumers can log on to http://www.airtelbroadband.in/games.
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.
