News Broadcasting
Sky Launches China’s 24-hour English news channel CCTV-9
MUMBAI: New Zealand’s pre-eminent Pay TV operator Sky Television has launched China Central Television’s 24-hour English language news channel, CCTV-9.
The five-year old news channel CCTV-9 has established itself as China’s premier round the clock English news service, providing in-depth news, expert analysis and current affairs programming. The channel is available on Channel 93 to all SKY Digital customers, as well as SKY’s WTV customers who already access CCTV-4, states an official release.
Sky Television CEO John Fellet says, “Sky Television is New Zealand’s premier pay TV operation, offering an extensive variety of interesting and locally relevant content. We always seek to add value by developing a greater choice of quality content to meet the needs of our diverse customer base. We are extremely pleased about the partnership with China Central Television and are excited about the addition of CCTV-9 which will give New Zealanders a Chinese perspective on events in China and around the world.”
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.
