News Broadcasting
Film ‘Gadar’ gives Zee entry in Top 20
MUMBAI: The film smashed all before it last year and was one of the stellar achievements for Subhash Chandra’s Zee Group in 2001. And the airing of Gadar Ek Prem Katha, gave Zee TV a Top 20 performance on the ratings charts after a long while.
The jingoistic Bollywood blockbuster that had he-man Sunny Deol playing the lead aired on Zee on 14 August (the eve of Independence Day) and has made two entries into the ratings charts. The second half of the movie (post 10 pm) registered 17 (5.05 TVRs) on the ratings scale while the first half (8 pm onwards) was 21 (4.5 TVRs) on the TAM ratings for 4+ TG across all markets for the week from 11 August to 17 August.
There was another movie in the Top 20 and that was the critically acclaimed Aamir Khan starrer Dil Chaata Hai that aired on Star Plus on Saturday night, 17 August, and came in at 19 notching up TVRs of 4.65.
Zee’s Playwin Lucky 3 lottery was the only other show that made its mark on the Top 100 at 28 with ratings of 4.08.
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.
