News Broadcasting
India Today publishing director Pavan Varshnei quits
NEW DELHI: Pavan Varshnei, the prime mover behind the India Today group’s launching of a slew of magazines, has quit the group.
Two senior managers, Raktim Das and Bidhu Sagar, who were working under him, have also quit the group, sources told Indiantelevision.com.
Varshnei, who left as publishing director-business division, is weighing options in the advertising world and says he decided to move after four years with Living Media because of major opportunities outside.
Varshnei was with Lintas for more than a decade before he joined the Living Media group.
Asked about the resignations of Das and Sagar, Varsgnei said: “Sorry, I cannot comment on that.”
Varshnei took over the division in 2004, with Business Today and Golf Digest as its only two products, but rapidly expanded the portfolio of magazines.
He identified new segments and, during the past three years, successfully launched four new publications – Scientific American, Harvard Business Review, Men’s Health and BT More, which are leading brands in their respective segments.
Varshnei also negotiated a joint venture with Germany’s Axel Springer Group, to launch Auto Bild India.
Prior to the India Today Group, he was Executive Vice President at Lintas India, where he spent 14 years working across the brands of Unilever, Maruti Suzuki, Electrolux, Joyco, Wills Lifestyle and Sony Ericsson, among others.
During his tenure with Lintas, he also served as the Head of Insight and oversaw the AOR media business for Bajaj Auto, Idea Cellular, UTI, Pantaloon and Parley Agro.
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.
