News Broadcasting
Over 60% of BBC APAC’s revenue is from native advertising: Alistair McEwan
NEW DELHI: When native advertising had entered the marketing world, just a few years ago, many questions were raised regarding its feasibility for both advertisers and publishers. From people not trusting sponsored content to it diminishing the credibility of a news publication, doubts loomed large over its future. However, the much-maligned ad format has risen above all that, and how. Forecasts from BI Intelligence, IAB and eMarketer show that global native advertising has grown by 213 per cent in 2020 as compared to 2016. Another report by ADYOULIKE, a leading in-feed native advertising technology, indicates that it will further grow by 372 per cent from 2020 to 2025, reaching a total global value of $402 billion.
In a recent virtual fireside chat with Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO, & editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari, BBC Global News SVP – commercial development for Asia & ANZ Alistair McEwan claimed that around 60-65 per cent of the organisation’s commercial revenue in the Asia Pacific region is driven by native advertising, which they’ve dubbed “commercial content marketing solutions.”
McEwan was speaking on day one of Indiantelevision.com’s virtual conference PubNation (digital & print), organised in partnership with Quintype Technologies and Gamezop.
“We are either producing content directly with and for the brands, or we are commissioning advertiser-funded editorial programming. The sponsorships are thus a very significant amount of our output. But we create this content with the same editorial standards that we do for our other editorial outputs. And actually, that’s why we have seen this enormous growth in branded content,” he elaborated.
McEwan, who had joined the conference from Sydney, added that he is seeing a massive growth coming from India too.
He also highlighted that to tap the full potential of the Indian and global market, when it comes to native advertising, BBC has also put in place its in-house content agency called BBC Content. “We launched in India two years ago and we are now producing a lot of branded content for different organisations, both in public and private sectors.”
PubNation (print & digital) is a two-day-long virtual confluence of the leading publishers, advertisers, and agencies across India. Launched on 9 December 2020, it will dissect hot-button issues including advertising opportunities, the content that will define the future of publications, and technologies that will aid that. You can watch the event live on Indiantelevision.com and its social media handles. For more information, visit (https://www.indiantelevision.com/pubnation/index.html).
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.
