News Broadcasting
Sky News’ head Nick Pollard to quit in September
MUMBAI: Sky News’ head Nick Pollard who ran the network for a decade is set to quit in September. He will be succeeded by the current executive editor John Ryley as the head of the network.
The announcement of Pollard’s opting to leave the organisation comes eight months after the channel’s expensive re-launch last October, inform media reports.
In January Pollard admitted that recent months had been “the toughest time in Sky News history” after viewers reacted negatively to the relaunch, which failed to attract new viewers.
Under his leadership, Sky News was recognised for its live reporting from the field of events such as the Asian tsunami, the Iraq War and the Kosovo crisis when the channel was the first to provide live pictures from inside Kosovo on liberation day.
Since the October relaunch, Sky has featured less rolling news and more distinct programmes plus the introduction of new presenters such as Eamon Holmes and James Rubin.
Before joining Sky as head of news in 1996, Pollard spent 13 years at ITN where he was executive producer of News at Ten. He began his career as a local newspaper journalist in 1968, before moving to the BBC where he remained until 1980.
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.
