News Broadcasting
CNN-IBN bags Laadli media award third time in a row
MUMBAI: CNN-IBN, India’s most-awarded news channel, has bagged the prestigious Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity 2013 in the Best Reporting category. The ‘Trauma of the Two-Finger Test’, which highlights the agony of a rape victim while having to undergo this archaic test to determine sexual assult, is a part of the Citizen Journalist – Agenda For Change campaign. CNN-IBN’s Senior Correspondent Akansha Pradeep received the award at a grand function held at Chinmaya Mission Auditorium in New Delhi on December 20.
The Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity, by Population First, acknowledges media’s efforts in promoting public awareness and understanding gender issues through gender-just perspectives, portrayals and analysis, policies, social trends, and behaviours.
Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, CNN-IBN, IBN7 & IBN Lokmat, said, “This award is another recognition of our efforts to ensure that a woman’s privacy and dignity cannot be violated. Unscientific and invasive practises such as TFT need to be discarded since these only prolong the trauma of the rape victim. The Laadli award further strengthens our resolve to continue to drive the agenda of change.”
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.
