News Broadcasting
TV reporter killed while covering major fire in Delhi
NEW DELHI: Mediaperson Ajay Tiwari, 34, was killed when he was covering a major fire at a factory-cum-godown in Dabri in south west Delhi on Wednesday afternoon.
Tiwari who was working for Sahara Samay for the past four years, is survived by his wife and a three-year old son.
In a condolence message, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said in Tiwari’s death, journalism has lost a promising talent. Tiwari died in the line of his duty maintaining the highest tradition of television journalism, the Minister added.
Madan Mohan, a cameraman with India News who was standing close to Tiwari, suffered injuries on his hands in the incident.
According to police, firemen who were already at the spot to douse the blaze took Tiwari out of the debris.
The police said that Tiwari got trapped inside the debris of a portion of the factory wall that collapsed after a cylinder blast in the factory.
“Tiwari, the field reporter with Sahara Samay, was covering the event for the channel when debris fell from the first floor of the building due to a cylinder blast,” said a senior fire official.
“Both were rushed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital where Tiwari succumbed to his injuries during treatment while Mohan is recuperating and is stated to be out of danger,” added the fire official.
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.
