News Broadcasting
Zee News weaves programming around Fifa World Cup
MUMBAI: As the football World Cup draws nearer, the Fifa fever is spreading to the news channels as well. Zee News will be telecasting special programmes on the coverage of the 2006 Fifa World Cup, titled Duniya Hai Goal.
Preceding the start of the World Cup on 9 June, Duniya Hai Goal will commence as a half an hour special programme from 30 May at 7:30 pm until the finale on 9 July. In keeping with the channels focus to extensively cover the event, two teams of correspondents from Zee News will cover the event in Germany.
A segment on the day’s play will be broadcast during the 6 – 7 am, 11 – 12 noon, 12 noon – 1 pm, 5 – 6 pm and 10 – 11 pm bulletins.
Besides coverage of the tournament, the bulletin also seeks to incorporate viewer interactivity. As part of this special, score bugs will run and trivia will cover the main information around Fifa this year. Zee News has also made way for debates, discussions and expert comments from big names in the game.
Programs like Zee Team Player will select the best player of the day on the basis of performance, which will be announced at 7:30 pm during the bulletin. In addition, a Zee World Cup Team consisting of the Top 15 players across the contesting teams will be selected and rated as per their performance during the matches.
Other programs such as Which Team Would Win, will choose a favourite team through the interactive involvement of viewers on the basis of the SMSs received. The channel will include a profile of top teams and players on the Countdown and will also telecast features on the stadium, encompassing every aspect of the World Cup.
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.
