News Broadcasting
NDTV 24X7 hops on to MultiChoice platform in Africa
MUMBAI: Leading English news channel NDTV 24X7 is now available on the MultiChoice platform in Africa.
The MultiChoice platform will now carry both North and South Indian content. The North Indian bouquet, currently comprising the Sony, B4U and Zee TV channels, will be enhanced with the addition of NDTV 24X7.
A new South Indian bouquet will also include NDTV 24X7 amongst the other channels.
Linda Vermaas, MultiChoice’s general manager content was quoted in an official release as saying, “The addition of NDTV 24X7 to the North and South Indian offering is evidence of MultiChoice’s ongoing commitment to bringing high quality entertainment and information to its diverse subscriber base. It’s taken us two years of intense research and negotiation to ensure that we secured channels that would meet the rich cultural and linguistic needs of South Africa’s Indian population.”
Sameer Manchanda, Director – NDTV said, “We’re very pleased to be partnering with MultiChoice to make India’s no. 1 English news channel available to the large Indian diaspora in Africa. We’re confident that NDTV will further strengthen the strong bond that the community shares with India and we will continue to provide the best and most credible news coverage from the region.
The North and South Indian bouquets is being marketed under the banner of DStv Indian. Multichoice’s DStv Indian package was officially launched in South Africa on Wednesday (21 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.
