News Broadcasting
Navratilova, Rusedski join BBC’s Wimbledon commentary team
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC has announced that record, nine-time Wimbledon Women’s champion Martina Navratilova and former World no.4 and US Open finalist Greg Rusedski are the latest recruits to the BBC’s television commentary team for this year’s Wimbledon Championships.
Navratilova and Rusedski join viewers favourite John McEnroe who returns this year, alongside fellow Wimbledon champions, three-time victor Boris Becker and two-time winner Jimmy Connors, who will be combining his TV work with coaching Andy Roddick.
Also back this year is Virginia Wade, celebrating the 30th anniversary of her win over Betty Stove in the 1977 Wimbledon Women’s Singles Final during the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
Tracy Austin also returns for a fifth year behind the microphone. A winner of the mixed-doubles title at Wimbledon with her brother John in 1980, Tracy also won the US Open twice, in 1979 and 1981.
With live and exclusive coverage beginning Monday 25 June on BBC One and BBC Two, BBC Radio Five Live, interactive through BBCi, and bbc.co.uk/sport, you can follow all the action from SW19 wherever you are.
Once again, Sue Barker will present the BBC’s live coverage from the All England Club, with John Inverdale fronting the nightly highlights programme, Today At Wimbledon.
Britain’s Davis Cup captain John Lloyd also returns and joins the regular team of Andrew Castle, Annabel Croft, Pat Cash, Peter Fleming, Michael Stich, Mark Cox, Sam Smith and Liz Smylie – all adding their expertise to the BBC’s coverage.
David Mercer, Barry Davies, Simon Reed and Chris Bradnam will also be back in action in the commentary box and will be joined by Andy Murray’s former coach, Mark Petchey.
Adding colour and atmosphere as roving reporters will be Hazel Irvine, Garry Richardson, Phil Jones and Rishi Persad.
The BBC will again be using the unique ball tracking system, Hawk-Eye.
Jason Goodall will be giving viewers an in-depth analysis of the intricacies of a players’ game and highlighting patterns of play.
In addition to this the umpires on Centre and No.1 Courts will, for the first time, use Hawk-Eye as an official umpiring tool to assist with contentious line call decisions and illustrate whether or not a ball was in or out. Players will receive three unsuccessful appeals per set plus an additional one during a tie-break.
Wimbledon will be broadcast in High Definition (HD) for the entire two weeks of the tournament. HD coverage will be available on the trial BBC HD Channel to digital satellite and cable viewers who have HD set-top boxes and televisions.
BBC Radio Five Live will bring listeners all the action live from Wimbledon with Simon Mayo and Clare Balding presenting coverage daily.
The interactive TV service will be once again offering digital viewers a whole host of extra features. In addition to terrestrial coverage, satellite and cable viewers have the chance to choose live action from up to five courts of play, and Freeview viewers have access to four extra courts, plus all the latest news, scores and results.
The service will also include text pages offering news, live scores and results. The interactive TV service will also replay Today At Wimbledon throughout the night and early morning for viewers to catch up on the day’s play.
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.
