News Broadcasting
Sensex sheds 227.2 points, hits 52-week low
It was another wild day at the bourses today, with the Bombay Stock Exchanges Sensitive Index (Sensex) swinging through the day in a 24 per cent band. Opening 8 per cent down, recovering almost all its losses by midday, losing another 8 per cent during the day before closing at 3,549.06 to a new 52-week low – a loss of 227.24 points, or 5.81 per cent.
Markets witnessed an estimated Rs 300 billion erosion in market capitalisation. The S&P CNX Nifty also fell by 5.32 per cent to close the day at 1,923.38.
Zee Telefilms,Tips , Balaji and Mukta Arts also crashed by 8 and 16% ceilings. Zee was quoted at Rs 110 down by 5% while Balaji lost 8% to Rs 176. In other media shares, counters like Pentamedia Graphics, Crest Communications, Jain Studios, Saregama India, TV 18 and Sri Adhikari Brothers were trading at their lower limit and below, ranging from 15-8%. Tips Industries (Rs 97.60), Adlabs Films (Rs 68.10), Cinevista Communications (Rs 51.95) and Pritish Nandy Communications (Rs 27.90) hit the 8% lower limit of the circuit breaker.
The day began on a bearish note following the late Monday night sacking of all the broker-directors of BSE by market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The fall in the tech-heavy Nasdaq below the 2000-mark on Monday only added fuel to the fire. Finance minister Yashwant Sinha’s proposal to introduce rolling settlement in BSE’s specified section, too, contributed to the volatility, which was showing signs of cooling off in noon trading after institutions, primarily government-owned and one FII, had stepped in to lend support and ram up the Sensex to the day’s high of 3777.48.
However, as soon as TV channels started flashing excerpts from a film, part of a sting operation carried out by New Delhi-based tehelka.com, a self styled news-views portal, showing some politicians from the ruling National Democratic Alliance in accepting kickbacks, all hell broke loose, with the Sensex plummeting to hit an intra-day low of 3436.75.
The tehelka “expose” threatens to put even the stock market crisis into the shade with the opposition baying for blood. Tehelka has captured Bharatiya Janata Party president Bangaru Laxman on camera while accepting Rs 100,000 for a party fund. Further, the president of a key coalition ally, Jaya Jaitley of the Samata Party, has accepted Rs 200,000, according to the transcript of the film. India’s defence minister George Fernandes is from the Samata Party.
Although Laxman did not deny taking the money, he claimed it was for the party coffers that he accepted the money. The expose did have an almost immediate fallout. At the time of posting, Laxman had announced his resignation as BJP party president.
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.
