News Broadcasting
News Corp, Liberty Media exploring DirecTV bid
COLORADO: Media conglomerates Liberty Media and News Corp are exploring the possibility of jointly acquiring top U.S. satellite TV service DirecTV. Liberty owns an 18 per cent stake in News Corp.
Liberty Media’s CEO Robert Bennett has been quoted in a Reuters report saying that News Corp would be the preferred partner. Rupert Murdoch has been trying for quite a while now to get his hands on DirecTV as this would give News Corp the missing piece of a global satellite network. It would be financially advantageous for the two parties to proceed together as opposed to launching separate bids.
Earlier this year, the proposed merger between Echostar and Hughes fell through. This was because the US anti-trust officials felt that consumers in rural areas without access to cable TV would have no choice but to subscribe to the merged group’s services.
The federal communications commission (FFC) had voted unanimously to oppose the merger. The merger would have created the largest pay TV service. The FCC should not have a problem if General Motors is favourable towards the joint bid as News Corp does not have a strong presence in the US satellite market.
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.
