News Broadcasting
Times Now and Zoom hop on to Dish TV
MUMBAI: The direct-to-home (DTH) platform Dish TV will now be offering two more channels, both from the Bennett Coleman stable — the lifestyle television channel Zoom and the English news and current affairs channel Times Now.
The DTH opportunity will help spur higher penetration and create even more attractive business prospects for the two channels in the television market, an official release states.
Essel Group additional vice-chairman Jawahar Goel says, “The availability of the hugely popular news channel from the Times Group, namely, Times Now and the lifestyle channel Zoom on Dish TV beefs up our already robust news content and lifestyle offering. We expect significant consumer response and growth in the subscriber base for Dish TV and for the DTH market in India due to this tie-up.”
According to Times Now CEO Sunil Lulla, “The partnership with Dish TV will further augment the growing popularity of Times Now and will enhance the news viewing experience of the users.”
Talking specifically about the synergies between viewers of Dish TV and Zoom, its CEO Suresh Bala adds, “Dish TV provides us the ideal platform for reaching a larger base of upscale consumers with interest in the lifestyle genre. Zoom prides itself in bringing the latest in trends and lifestyle to our consumers and we believe strongly that our availability on the latest technology Dish TV platform enhances our positioning.”
At present, Dish TV, an Essel Group company with 1.3 million subscribers across the country, carries more than 160 channels, including all the popular cable channels and some exclusive channels.
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.
