News Broadcasting
CNBC-TV18 elevates Sidharth Zarabi to national news editor
MUMBAI: CNBC-TV18, India’s No.1 business channel, has announced a strengthening of its editorial leadership team with a new role being assigned to senior editor Sidharth Zarabi as National News Editor. In this new capacity, Zarabi’s mandate will be to drive reporting teams nationally apart from leading special news programming initiatives on the channel. Zarabi earlier was the Economic Policy Editor and the Delhi bureau chief for CNBC-TV18.
Speaking on this development, Anil Uniyal, CEO, CNBC-TV18 & CNBC Awaaz, said “Sidharth has played a critical role in CNBC-TV18’s leadership so far and going forward his expertise will be invaluable in terms of how CNBC-TV18 contributes as well as benefits from our integrated business newsroom”
Commenting on this, Shereen Bhan, Managing Editor, CNBC-TV18 said “Siddharth is a versatile and prolific journalist with over 16 years of experience. He has brought energy and dynamism to the news room. In his new role as National News Editor, he will work closely with me to drive CNBC-TV18’s team of reporters. He will also front special news based shows for the channel
Speaking on his elevation, Sidharth Zarabi added “It’s been a momentous journey so far and my experience with CNBC-TV18 has been intense and enriching over the years. I hope to bring it to bear as we thrust ahead and further strengthen its leadership”
Zarabi has over 15 years of experience and prior to joining the group in 2008, he has had stints with the Business Standard and The Indian Express.
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.
