News Broadcasting
Republic TV expands its footprint in UK with DistroTV
Mumbai : English news channel Republic TV is pivoting to digital, OTT and smart TV distribution with the latest addition of DistroTV to cater to the diaspora in the United Kingdom market.
The channel along with its Hindi news channel R Bharat has now set its sights on the international markets. With a view to address the news consumption pattern across all demographics, the channels are taking a market wise approach and targeting new age distribution platforms including the burgeoning OTT and connected TV sets ecosystem. It’s also looking to syndicate its content library across various new age platforms.
After content partnerships with all major OTT platforms Like Hotstar, Yupp TV, it has now added DistroTV in the UK and APAC markets.
Commenting on the strategy, Republic Media Network, group CEO, Vikas Khanchandani said, “Republic TV is a news media technology company and has been the front runner to make its streaming services available across smart phones and connected TVs with its partnerships with OTT, OEMs and Telco platforms both within India and globally. The pandemic has accelerated streaming TV consumption driven by news & sports. It’s an opportune moment for us to pivot our strategy in the UK market as streaming is outpacing pay TV in UK.”
COO – India distribution head and international markets, Priya Mukherjee, COO said, the channel has reached a peak of 421K and maintains an average reach of around 200K in the last quarter during the pandemic. “Many platforms have approached us given the leadership position and the loyal audiences we built in the UK, in such a short time. Our distribution capabilities, give us an opportunity, to approach each market differently and we are looking at all possible models that are best suited to our expansion plans, including a more, Direct to Consumer approach,” she added.
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.
