News Broadcasting
Sony Entertainment Television black out on DTH in the US
Sony Entertainment Television is off DTH television screens in the US for the past four days. The reason: DTH provider Direct TV has switched off the signal.
According to Sony Entertainment Television India officials, the channel had a franchise agreement with the Ethnic American Broadcasting Corporation (EABC) which was trying to bring together a bouquet of several language channels, including Arabic, Chinese and Russian. But it failed when its entire investment planning went awry.
EABC had contracted with Direct TV to collect subscription revenues, some of which it would keep, some of which would be passed on to Sony. With EABC going bust, there were no subscriptions being collected. The company is undergoing Chapter Seven bankruptcy proceedings. Reportedly Direct TV was supposed to keep Sony beaming until the courts reached a decision. However, the DTH provider switched off the signal four days ago.
Sony has since then been working on bringing the Sony Entertainment signal back on air and is in talks with another DTH service provider in the US. The courts are supposed to reach a decision by mid-next week, following which Sony officials will be in a position to make some announcements. Sony officials say Sony Entertainment should be back on track within the next 15 days.
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.
