News Broadcasting
NBC Universal enters Olympics deals with DirecTV, Dish
MUMBAI: NBC Universal has announced deals with US satellite platforms DirecTV and Dish Network for this month’s coverage of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy.
As per the deal, DirecTV will also offer enhanced features such as the Sports Mix channel, which will display multiple NBC Olympic channels simultaneously on one screen. Sports Mix will also offer up up-to-the-minute medal counts, NBC’s entire Winter Olympics television schedule and more.
Further, DirecTV will offer more than 100 hours of high-definition Olympic coverage from Universal HD and up to 200 hours of NBC network Olympic Coverage in HD, as well as more than 15 hours of on demand NBC Olympics content available to DirecTV DVR customers.
Meanwhile, Dish Network subscribers will have access to NBC Interactive TV, which will allow viewers to monitor six channels on a single TV screen and select the competition or program that they want to view in normal, full-screen format.
Dish Network customers can view five NBC Universal networks simultaneously: MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Bravo and SCI FI, three of which will broadcast NBC’s Olympic coverage. A sixth screen will show NBC’s Daily Olympic Highlights, as well as a preview of upcoming Olympic events to be aired across the NBC Universal networks.
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.
