News Broadcasting
Turner to handle ad sales for Zee MGM, Zee English & Trendz
MUMBAI: Distribution partners Zee Telefilms and Turner International India are expanding their relationship. Effective 1 July, Turner will be the exclusive advertising sales agent for Zees English entertainment & lifestyle channels Zee MGM, Zee English and Trendz.
Under this agreement, Turner will use its in-house expertise in India and internationally to promote the channels to advertisers in India and work with clients and agencies to increase advertising revenues on the channels, an official release states.
This agreement furthers the relationship between Zee and Turner that began when the two parties formed a joint venture company, Zee Turner Limited, in December 2001, to manage distribution and trade marketing for a bouquet of Zee and Turner channels as well as third party channels in India and South Asia.
Ad sales at Zee MGM and Zee English is currently being managed by Rohinton Maloo’s Cutting Edge Media. It was in September 2002 that Cutting Edge was appointed to manage the two English niche channels in the Zee bouquet with the brief to develop sales strategies and drive front end ad sales. At the time the deal was struck, Zee had an option to buy a strategic equity stake in the company at some point.
For Turner, the addition of Zee’s three channels augment the variety offered by Turner to advertisers, adding general entertainment, movies and fashion to the existing line-up of entertainment and news provided by Cartoon Network and CNN. Turner will be working closely with the Zee team to create effective sales solutions and will also expand its sales team to sell these three properties, the release says.
Anshuman Misra, Managing Director, Turner International India Pvt. Ltd, said, “Over the years, Turner has exceeded expectations and over-delivered in advertising sales for our own channels; and we are pleased to be leveraging our sales expertise to expand our partnership with Zee. With the addition of these channels, we have expanded our portfolio of tools with which we can create even more innovative marketing packages for advertisers to target consumers across a broader demographic spectrum.”
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.
