News Broadcasting
India’s NatWest cricket finals win delivers ESPN year’s highest C&S ratings
MUMBAI: ESPN’s live telecast of the NatWest series finals on 13 July registered an unprecedented viewership with ratings touching a record high of 19.31 TVR for all C&S homes 4+ category, the company has asserted.
The final hour of the NatWest finals on ESPN thus created a record for the most watched television programme this year across all channels by registering an average of 14.7 TVR for all C&S homes, 4 + category, an official release states, quoting TAM Media Research data.
During the nail-biting finish which saw some electric performances by India’s young turks led by new batting sensation Mohammed Kaif , Male, 15+, SEC ABC, all India, the target group for media buyers on sports channels, registered a record TVR of 22.16, the highest for any sports broadcast across C&S homes for the last two years.
Manu Sawhney, managing director of ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd., said: “I believe a combination of exciting India playing one-day cricket, the exclusive nature of live telecast on ESPN, and ESPN STAR Sports being the highest penetrated encrypted channels across India helped us deliver the record ratings.”
More audiences tuned in for the entire duration of India batting telecast on ESPN (over 4 hours) recording a phenomenal average of 11.5 TVR for all C&S homes 4+ category, and 15.3 TVR for Male, 15+, SEC ABC, all India, the target group for the sports channels, the release states.
Over 23.6 million people across all C&S homes tuned in to watch an amazing Indian victory scoring over 325 runs playing second! Over 42 per cent of all males in 15+ SEC ABC category across the C&S homes India tuned in, the data shows.
The average sport ratings during the entire Indian batting session of the NatWest series final telecast on ESPN recorded a TVR of 13.4 offering tremendous value to sponsors Pepsi, LG, Samsung, TVS, Sahara India and Hindustan Lever, the release says.
Next up for ESPN Star Sports is the live and exclusive telecast of the India-England test series begins on Star Sports on Thursday, 25 July.
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.
