News Broadcasting
“Indian media is going through a digital tsunami”: Aroon Purie
NEW DELHI: The world is going digital and so is the print medium, which currently is at the forefront of a digital revolution. The digital boom has redefined print business. “Those in the medium, now call themselves as content producers,” said The India Today Group chairman and editor in chief Aroon Purie.
According to Purie, print medium has gone a step further, as it now engages with the audience. Talking on monetisation in print at the CII Big Summit 2014, Purie emphasised on the growing need for those in the publication business, to engage with consumers in different ways. “We are going through a digital ‘tsunami’. The good news for print medium is that we are riding on top of this tsunami. But it is moving so fast that one doesn’t know where he/she is heading,” said Purie.
While there was a time when print was in a depressed mood, things now have changed drastically. For Purie, print has converted the tsunami into an opportunity, where they are generating revenue not just by advertising in the print format but also on digital.
Currently India has 240 million internet users, which according to reports will jump to 350-400 million in the next three to four years. “These are opportunities where content can be transferred,” he informed. The good thing, as for Purie, is that publishers in India have good content and so there is nothing to worry about when they go to the digital medium.
But he agrees that the print content needs to be modified as per the medium, which is a challenge. “Traditional business is declining, while there is an increase in the digital business,” he informed.
While advertisers are ready to catch the young eyeballs on the internet, digital advertising currently is not very prominent. “But the future is digital and if you don’t invest in that now, you will soon die,” he added.
In order to have a healthy business, Purie suggested that the print industry should look at transforming itself into multi-platform, get into contextual advertising, build clients, brand launches for advertisers and also look at hosting events. “Sometimes the events become more popular and profitable than the publication itself,” he said.
Digital revolution has also changed the kind of content being produced. “Today, content needs to be designed in a way that it can be availed on any screen. It needs to be interactive, sharable and available all the time,” informed Purie.
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.
