News Broadcasting
Disruptions are a necessary evil
CANNES: We live in times of fast changing technology where more often than not, the only way to keep pace is to unlearn what we’ve just learnt and re-adapt ourselves to the transformation.
Exactly the point Deluxe Media Europe senior director, sales and business development Darren Baker was trying to drive home when he said: “Every time you think you have learnt everything, you have to adapt and learn again. The need is to adapt quickly and learn again.”
Baker was addressing a gathering at Verriere Grand Audi Level one at the Palais on day two of Mipcom.
“The important thing is to learn quickly and react to the disruption,” he further stressed.
Referring to cinema, TV, VCR, DVD, BluRay and now VOD as techniques used for disruptions, Baker said that while the disruptive nature of some technological shifts was immediately evident, in other cases, it became clear only through tracking the patterns of adoption.
Speaking of one too many portals in the content supply chain, he said: “The consumer wants the content, the content provider wants to provide the content and the portals are ready to carry them. But then there are too many contracts. There needs to be a disruption here.”
Not just portals, he also pointed out that there are just too many schemes and updates. “By the time the consumer is happy that they have got all the programmes, the portal updates its software and the consumer has to change the entire system yet again,” he said.
In his view, the proliferation of vendors too posed a problem. “If you have a large number of vendors, you should reduce them,” he advised buyers.
Offering his take on successful disruptions, he said: “There is a need for constant improvement in every company. A fresh approach is always welcome and refreshing the digital policy every few months also helps,” adding that with every four year old ignoring television and moving towards mobile and social media, “companies need to be open to disruptions”.
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: 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.
