News Broadcasting
Republic TV enters MENA via OSN Pehla
MUMBAI: English news channel Republic TV is riding to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with its first international launch. The newest kid on the block has tied up with local pay-TV provider to launch on OSN Pehla on 5 November.
Launched in May this year by stalwart journalist and former face of Times Now, Arnab Goswami, the channel surged up the records chart in its first week and has claimed a significant pie of the English news space.
Republic TV,president of distribution and international revenues Priya Mukherjee adds, “Since our inception earlier this year, Republic TV has strived towards widening the reach of our cutting-edge content. While we successfully executed the reach of Republic TV across all households in the fragmented Indian cable distribution ecosystem during the first six months of the channel, our next target would be to reach audiences across the world. Our launch in the MENA region is our first foray in international distribution and we hope to expand our reach further with audiences around the world soon.”
Indiantelevision.com had reported that the channel was to launch in the MENA market by June, followed by a launch in Singapore.
Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani says, “Demand from the market has been over whelming and we are extremely delighted to bring Republic TV to the audiences in MENA through OSN. We will also look to create original content specific to the MENA markets in due course and Priya and her team will be offering advertisers the most impactful news media platform reaching discerning audiences in the region.”
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Republic TV to launch in Middle East and Singapore
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.
