News Broadcasting
TV7 helps ESPN Star Sports spread tentacles in Indonesia
Sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has entered into an agreement with TV7, the latest terrestrial television station in Indonesia.
The sports broadcaster is aiming at further expansion of its distribution coverage and growing list of distribution partners across the region, an official release states.
TV7 subscribers will be able to view sporting events like the English Premier League. Coverage will include EPL highlights and preview shows. The US Open Tennis Tournament, the ESPN X Games as well as the CGU Asian Bowling Tour will also air on the station.
In Indonesia, ESS programming is also syndicated to free-to-air channel TPI. The 24-hour ESPN and Star Sports cable channels are available on the platform of pay television cable operators Indovision, Kabelvision, Telkomvision and PT Indosat Mega Media. Over 91,500 cable households receive the two sports channels in Indonesia.
ESS, a 50:50 joint venture between ESPN and Star, runs nine networks in the region – ESPN Asia, ESPN India, ESPN Taiwan, ESPN Philippines, MBC-ESPN, Star Sports Asia, Star Sports India, Star Sports Taiwan and Star Sports SEA.
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.
