News Broadcasting
Daily mythological series on 7 channels of ETV Network
MUMBAI: It has been billed as the world’s first daily mythological series. From 26 August, seven channels of the Eenadu TV Network began airing “Darshan Do Bhagwan”, a unique religious show.
Whereas, in a typical mythological format each story continues for 52 – 104 weeks, in the case of Darshan Do Bhagwan, the viewer gets to understand all he wants within five half hour episodes, an official release says. The series will also explore some hitherto unknown facets of Indian culture, history and mythology.
“Through Darshan Do Bhagwan, we not only provide the Darshan of the revered deity in its original form but also tell the yet untold story behind the particular ‘teerth’ (pilgrimage centre) and what happened during various ages at that particular holy place. We wish to share with a whole new generation of Indians, the richness and diversity of our culture and history as well as make them aware of the whys behind our Indianness, rituals, festivals and practices,” says co-producer and COO of In House Productions, Uday Sinh Wala.
The production of Darshan Do Bhagwan involves different set of creative teams to shoot different stories giving a certain and definite freshness to the series; new setting, costumes and music every week will provide much needed relief, the release says.
In an attempt to reach out to a wider audience, the series has been dubbed in four languages and is being telecast on seven channels of the ETV network. Music forms an integral part of the series with over 45 songs, “Bhajans” and “Aartees” already recorded based on various folk tunes from different states of India.
The curtain raiser episode was on Sunday 25 August. The telecast began on 26 August and is from Monday to Friday. On the ETV Hindi Network covering UP, Bihar, MP and Rajasthan the show airs at 8:00 pm with repeat telecasts next day in the afternoon. On ETV Gujarati the telecast is at 3:05 pm while on ETV Oriya & Marathi it is at prime time, the release says.
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.
