News Broadcasting
NewsX gets into long-term partnership with Outbrain Engage suite of products
MUMBAI: Outbrain, the discovery and native advertising feed for the open web, announced that it has signed an exclusive long-term partnership with News X, one of India’s top English language Publishers. The partnership will allow News X to fully leverage the Outbrain Engage platform by maximising insights and analytics that will help surface the best recommendations across both organic and sponsored content.
As part of the platform offering, News X will draw on Outbrain’s proprietary technologies and tools, allowing it to marry editorial curation with personalisation, increase audience engagement and growth, and enhance its digital strategy by connecting content to revenue.
Outbrain head of India Sandeep Balani quoted, “We are delighted to launch this partnership with News X,” said Sandeep Balani. “Our focus is to equip publishers with the tools to drive monetisation by enhancing the user experience, trust and loyalty, especially against the backdrop of a saturated digital environment. Attention is increasingly difficult to secure, but content personalised for its online audience driven by Outbrain’s proprietary insights and analytics will enable News X to gain meaningful engagements.”
“Digital content consumption is on the rise in India and we are excited to tap into Outbrain’s offerings to better understand and engage our growing base of digital users through powerful and strategically placed native experiences,” said ITV Network CEO Varun Kohli. He added, “In the fast-paced world of content marketing, content distribution has become fundamental to our strategy, and we are confident that Outbrain will help us take our digital capabilities to the next level.”
“India has seen exponential growth in its online audience, primarily driven by mobile phones and tablet adoption,” said Outbrain director of business development India Anand Makhija. “This shift in the digital media landscape has opened up a huge opportunity for publishers and advertisers alike but has also fundamentally changed how they reach and communicate with their audiences. Outbrain’s premium native solution is perfectly positioned to help both publishers and advertisers further accelerate year on year growth, and solidify their excellence in native and programmatic.”
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.
