News Broadcasting
WTA Tour launches magazine-style TV show
MUMBAI: In a bid to create more personality around tennis The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour is launching a 12-episode television series.
The show will give viewers a glimpse of the off-court passions and lifestyles of the stars.
In India WTA action airs on Ten Sports. The magazine-style show, sponsored by Dubai Duty Free and entitled Dubai Duty Free presents Real Life On The WTA Tour, will be packed each month with intimate features, human-interest stories and behind-the-scenes footage.
The half an hour shows, produced by the Tour and KC Productions, debut on 26 July on Eurosport, potentially exposing the women’s game to 240 million viewers in 54 countries each year. The series will also air on The Tennis Channel in the US starting on 8 August.
The initial four episodes of ‘Real Life’ are complete and include footage from Tour events held earlier this year in Dubai, Amelia Island, Charleston, Rome, Berlin, Paris and Wimbledon. The premiere episode features multiple Grand Slam champion Serena Williams on a shopping trip in Charleston and getting ready for an awards gala; a day-in-the-life with Justine Henin-Hardenne at Saddlebrook Resort near Tampa, Florida; and rising star Wimbeldon champion Maria Sharapova during her recent Italian Vogue magazine photo shoot.
The new series will compliment the Tour’s recently-launched European television news service. The news service creates and distributes highlights of major European Tour events to broadcast media outlets around the world, further expanding the visibility of the game
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.
