News Broadcasting
France 24 now in HD in Asia-Pacific region
France 24 has signed a distribution agreement with satellite operator AsiaSat, making its English channel available in HD via AsiaSat 5.
France 24 English HD is currently available exclusively in the Asia-Pacific region and this launch marks an important new step in the channel’s development.
This agreement reinforces the attractiveness of the channel for cable operators, DTH and IPTV as well as for major hotel chains.
Thanks to recent distribution deals in South Korea and the granting of a broadcast license in Vietnam, France 24 is now available to 60 million TV households and more than 300,000 hotel rooms across the Asia-Pacific region.
For further information about how to include France 24 English HD in your offer, please contact Brice Bertrand and David Couret attending CASBAA Convention 2016:
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.
