News Broadcasting
NBC signs largest ever agreement with Nielsen
NEW YORK : Nielsen Media Research and NBC have announced the signing of a seven-year landmark agreement for audience measurement services covering all of NBC’s television businesses.
This includes the NBC Television Network, cable networks Bravo, CNBC and MSNBC, Telemundo, the 14 NBC-owned-and-operated television stations, and the 13 Telemundo television stations. It is the largest, most comprehensive agreement of its kind in the history of media research.
An official release informs that NBC has also agreed to support the largest-ever expansion of Nielsen’s National People Meter Sample. When all elements of the expansion plan are complete, the effective size of the National People Meter Sample will grow from 5,000 households to nearly 10,000 homes.
The agreement also builds on a strong engineering foundation between the two companies. NBC has agreed to implement Nielsen’s digital encoding system to be used in Nielsen’s new metering system for producing television ratings. The new Active/Passive metering system will be introduced in 2004. In sample homes, the A/P Meter will identify programmes, stations and networks from electronic codes embedded in programmes at the distribution source. NBC and Nielsen engineers will work closely together as new digital distribution systems come to the US market.
President and CEO Nielsen Media Research Susan D Whiting said, ” This landmark agreement reflects our commitment to everyone at NBC, first to deliver the highest quality estimates to their businesses every day; and second, that we have invested in the right technology, the right methodology, the right partnerships, and the right people to assure that television will always be the best measured medium of audience delivery.”
The release states that highly diversified media companies require comprehensive access to a broad spectrum of audience research information. Limitations on how individual business units may use vital information can impede growth.
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.
