News Broadcasting
Tech TV lands in Comcast lap
MUMBAI : Comcast Corporation has finally bought Tech TV, thus finishing its long rumoured sale on 25 March 2004.G4, the Comcast-owned television network devoted to video games and the gamer lifestyle, has signed an agreement with Vulcan Programming Inc. to acquire Tech TV. Comcast will merge TechTV with G4. The new network will be headed by G4 CEO Charles Hirschhorn and the operations will be based in Los Angeles, where G4 has just moved into a new studio.
Though executives have not commented on the price of the acquisition, it was reportedly slightly less than $300 million. But it still remains to be decided whether the production will continue at TechTV’s current San Francisco studios.
The channel would be available to 44 million cable and satellite customers nationwide would create a network which will serve the purpose of complementing Comcast’s growing content portfolio and expands G4’s distribution.G4 founder and CEO Charles Hirschhorn, will be the CEO of the combined network says, “This merger is a win for G4; a win for TechTV; and a win for our advertising and affiliate partners.”
He further states, “The result will be one compelling TV channel that showcases the fun and entertaining side of games and technology with the distribution necessary to achieve broad appeal”
For at least 30 days, viewers will see no changes in the appearance of TechTV or G4, while the deal is subjected to regulatory approval.
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.
