News Broadcasting
Thomson Reuters plans to launch biz news channel
MUMBAI: Thomson Reuters is planning to launch a business television news channel by January next year, entering the competition that already has market leader CNBC and new entrant Fox Business Network.
Daily Telegraph reports that the plan is for the channel to appear on both the internet and some form of cable or digital platform. The launch could be as early as January 2009 but may be pushed back as the company is conscious of Reuters’ earlier unsuccessful foray into television.
Thomson Reuters, which is a merger of Reuters and the Thomson Corporation last year, wants an extra avenue through which to channel content and raise revenues. Thomson agreed in May 2007 to acquire Reuters, with a cash-and-stock offer that valued the 157-year-old news agency at £8.7bn.
The New York newsroom, which will act as the main studio for the channel, was opened yesterday.
In an internal memorandum, editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said the new newsroom was all about “multi-media opportunities.”
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.
