News Broadcasting
News Corp, Nielsen sign eight-year contract
MUMBAI: Nielsen Media Research and US media conglomerate News Corp have announced an eight-year agreement under which Nielsen will provide audience measurement services for 49 News Corp. television entities.
The pact consolidates more than 150 individual agreements between the companies. Financial terms were not disclosed.ovie channels.
News Corp executive VP corporate affairs Gary Ginsberg says, “This agreement, which was more than a year in the making, affords us much greater efficiencies and simplicity in our relationship with Nielsen. We are very pleased to put our differences with Nielsen behind us and to usher in a new era of constructive and even deeper relations between our two companies.
“Nielsen’s willingness to take concrete and ongoing steps to ensure that its measurement systems accurately count all viewers was critical to achieving this deal.”
Nielsen Media Research senior VP business strategy Dave Thomas says, “In an era of digital television and multiple delivery platforms, we believe it makes sense for our clients to take an integrated approach for audience measurement.
“News Corp. has long been a valued Nielsen client and we have worked tirelessly for months to craft a landmark agreement ensuring that Nielsen will continue to provide News Corp. with the highest quality measurement services for their many television platforms.”
News Corp entities and affiliates covered under the agreement include Fox, Fox News Channel, FX, Speed, National Geographic Channel, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports Net, Fox Sports en Espanol, DirecTV, Twentieth Television and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
Nielsen Media Research also will provide News Corp with local television audience estimates for 35 Fox-owned local television stations, including Local People Meter (LPM) service for Fox television stations in markets measured by LPMs.
As part of the agreement, Nielsen is investing approximately $50 million in programs designed to enhance the response rates of participants in its samples, with special emphasis on younger demographics and communities of color.
Nielsen adds that it will continue its successful community outreach programs that include a variety of initiatives that promote broader awareness of the company and its role in the television industry.
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: 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.
