News Broadcasting
Star, Sony scout for people to head their dotcom operations
After going all out to jump into the Internet bandwagon, media companies are now hunting for people to head these ventures. Both the channels have given typical dotcom ads in classifieds section of newspapers.
Star TV has already made investments in quite a few portals. Sony is also rumored to have acquired a stake in the site freshlimesoda.com.
Besides investments in other portals the media companies are also looking at bringing convergence in their own backyard, and hence this rush for dotcom professionals.
While Sony is looking for someone as Head- Internet business and Head- Communication Technology, Star is looking at a much wider range of people. And of course, the pay packets would be hefty – the dotcom way.
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.
