News Broadcasting
Ten beefs up weekend programming, focuses on Indian sports
Even as Ten Sports makes hay with World Cup soccer, it is making sure that the fledgling channel does not fade from public memory once soccer mania subsides.
The Taj Sports promoted channel has announced a new weekend programming line up termed ‘Spectacular Sunday’ to ensure continued viewer interest. Beginning this Sunday, the channel starts the day with a WWF fight, now rechristened the WWE Judgment Day. At 11 am, soccer dominates with three games – Mexico v Ecuador, Costa Rica v Turkey and Japan v Russia.
The evening’s line up includes live coverage of Indian ace driver Narain Karthikeyan in the Motorsports World Series, followed by the World Cup highlights at 9 pm. Formula 1 will be beamed live from Canada at 10.50 pm.
The decision to telecast Karthikeyan’s races live are part of an effort to bring in more of ethnic sporting action from the sub continent, says Ten Sports vice president, programming and events, Peter Hutton. “The idea is to increase the image of Indian sports; while the world cup has a huge following in India, the perception of Indian football is none too great here. That is why we have Indian captain Bhaichung Bhutia our studios during the World Cup too”, he says.
There are other proposals for producing shows on ethnic games in the pipeline, but have ‘be relevant, look good as well as be cost wise on the production front,” he says. While a majority of ad slots for the soccer event have already been sold, there is still some space left in the last couple of weeks, says Hutton. While life for Ten Sports will continue to be event driven post World Cup, Hutton says the channel is trying to build up an audience in the 14 to 35 age group with its regular WWF shows and regulars like the chat show hosted by singer Raageshwari.
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.
