News Broadcasting
Zee makes initial payment of $ 20 million to BCCI
MUMBAI / NEW DELHI: Challenges in the court notwithstanding, Zee Telefilms is not letting any such distractions come in the way as it moves ahead full steam with its plans for the mother of all cricket acquisitions – India cricket telecast rights.
Honouring one of the conditions set by the Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI) when it awarded Zee the rights for the next four years for a whopping $ 308 million, Subhash Chandra’s network made an initial payment of $20 million this morning.
According to a spokesperson for Essel Group, the parent entity for Zee Telefilms and Chandra’s other companies, it has also been conveyed to the BCCI that a bank guarantee worth $ 75 million is also ready as per conditions. “As and when the BCCI indicates, the bank guarantee would be furnished, which would also facilitate the signing of the contract simultaneously,” the spokesperson added.
The other condition Zee had to fulfil when it was awarded the contract was to provide a bank guarantee. The board has also said it expects Zee to enter into an agreement with Prasar Bharati for the live feed of the cricket matches
ESS CASE ADJOURNED TO THURSDAY
Meanwhile, the case filed yesterday by ESPN Star Sports in the Bombay High Court challenging BCCI’s decision to award the rights to the Zee Network has been adjourned to Thursday.
A division bench of Chief Justice DC Bhandari and Justice DY Chandrachud gave this decision when the ESS petition came up for hearing before them.
Petitioner ESS, incidentally, has also made the Indian government a party to the case.
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.
