News Broadcasting
Zee Turner launches “Smart Sellers” training program for cable ops in four metros
NEW DELHI: Further to its drive to educate and inform consumers and partners on the advantages of CAS, Zee Turner Ltd, the distribution arm of Zee Telefilms and Turner International bouquet of channels, today, launched a comprehensive training program for cable operators in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
Titled “Smart Sellers”, the training program will be conducted by National Institute of Sales (NIS) in collaboration with Zee Turner executives between 18 June – 10 July, 2003 in the four cities. Zee Turner had earlier this month launched an educative campaign on CAS targeting consumers on all leading Zee channels.
Commenting on the launch of the training program, Zee Turner CEO Sunil Khanna said, “Cable operators have always been an integral part of our business and are our brandambassadors to the consumer. Being the leaders, we felt the need to organize a training program for cable operators since CAS is all set to redefine their role. They will have to directly interface with the consumers on queries on STBs, channel frequencies and price-value proposition of channel bouquets. Thus our training program will equip them with the necessary technical skills as well as help them develop soft skills to service their customers better.”
The “Smart Sellers” training program will be held for cable operators in consultation with MSOs in the four metros and is expected to have participation from over 2,000 cable operators. The training program will be divided into the following interactive sessions:
Module on selling skills, which will have role-plays on mapping and identifying pre-sale processes, collection of customer data and self-presentation. This will be followed by a session on developing softer skills for building a rapport with the consumer, accessing the needs of the family and objective handling of customer queries to clarify doubts.
There will also be a separate module on technical details of set top boxes and crisis management.
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.
