News Broadcasting
TBN looks to boost coverage of its faith networks in Asia
MUMBAI: Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), which claims to be the world’s largest faith and family-friendly network group, has reached an agreement with Hong Kong-based Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) to air TBN’s group of faith-based networks throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
TBN founder and president Dr. Paul Crouch says, “A major window of opportunity has been opened so that we will be able to broadcast our programming on ABS into the Asia-Pacific region. This golden opportunity will open up TBN’s broadcast services to more of that part of the world known as the “1040 Window” — so that billions more people can have the hope and joy that the good news of our programming can bring to their lives.”
TBN’s networks will be distributed throughout the Asia-Pacific region extending from Mongolia to the south of Thailand and across Eastern Europe, Asia and Japan, reaching a potential audience of several billion viewers.
The networks include:
— TBN Flagship Network. Each day TBN offers inspirational programming that it says appeals to people in a wide variety of denominations. (www.tbn.org)
— JCTV. This is a digital network geared for teens and young adults. JCTV features round-the-clock cutting edge Christian music videos, reality and game shows, relevant talk programs, comedy, extreme sports, and much more. (www.jctv.org)
— The Church Channel. It features America’s most popular church services from a wide variety of Protestant and Catholic congregations – broadcast 24 hours a day. (www.thechurchchannel.org)
— Smile of a Child TV. Thisd is TBN’s latest network addition. Smile of a Child TV features faith-based programming that parents can trust for their children. (www.smileofachildtv.org)
ABS’ agreement with TBN will bring faith-based broadcasting to the most populated area of the world. ABS CEO Tom Choi says, “We look forward to partnering with TBN to expand the distribution of their channels across Asia, focusing on key markets such as Thailand and India through DTH and CATV distribution. We are very excited to include TBN in our growing neighborhood of free-to-air channels on our high-powered Ku-band platform.”
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.
