News Broadcasting
TV tops news consumption in the UK
MUMBAI: In the UK, TV is the most used platform for news (79 per cent) according to the 2018 News Consumption in the UK research report published by communications regulator Ofcom.
TV is followed by internet (64 per cent), radio (44 per cent) and newspapers (40 per cent) among adults. However, internet is the most popular platform among 16-24s (82 per cent) and ethnic minority groups (EMGs) (73 per cent).
Television being the most-used platform, BBC One is the most important news source and is used by 62 per cent adults in UK followed by ITV (41 per cent) and Facebook (33 per cent). When it comes to online news, social media is used by 44 per cent adults.
BBC One is the most used source for news in Wales, Scotland and England, while UTV is most popular in Northern Ireland (NI). Facebook is the third most popular source across all nations. Welsh respondents are most likely to say they’re interested in news about their nation (55 per cent vs 49 per cent in Scotland, 37 per cent in NI and 32 per cent in England).
One in seven adults (14 per cent) use all four main platforms for news (i.e. TV, radio, newspapers and the internet).
Eighty two per cent of 12-15 year olds said that the news they heard from family was either ‘always’ or ‘mostly’ true, compared to 77 per cent for radio and 73 per cent for TV. Only one in three (34 per cent) think news stories on social media are reported truthfully.
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.
