News Broadcasting
Balaji’s latest gives DD audiences a big thrill
MUMBAI: The good times continue to roll for Balaji. The soap factory’s latest show on pubcaster Doordarshan, Kyamaat – Jab bhi waqt aata hai, has started off on a great note and continues to maintain its position in the third week.
On the day of its launch the show ranked number two, with rating 9.7 TVR, next to DD’s top runner – the supernatural thriller Aap Beti, which continues as DD’s top show, with 12 TVR’s.
Kyamaat , the show about love, deceit and revenge debut on 19 December 2003 on DD1.
Conceptualised by Ekta Kapoor, the new show, airing on Fridays and Saturdays at 9 pm, has Ali Hasan, Amita Chanekar, Kishwar, Neelam Mehra, Lily Patel and Ashish in its main cast.
Speaking to indiantelevision.com, the show’s creative director Sandiip Sikcand said, “The show had to do well. We never cut corners in the production. Although it is shown on the national broadcaster, the treatment was like a satellite show, complete with gloss and glamour”
The freelance creative director, who is also looking at the creative aspects of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, offered that the script is ready for 22 episodes and that DD had commissioned Balaji to do the show for a year to begin with..
The actors roped in are Balaji’s actors and therefore the connect with the audience was instant. But the major plus of the story according to Sikcand is the story flow. “It is a thriller saga and right from the first episode we have introduced the thrill element. Despite it being the first episode, the pace of the show wasn’t slack and we intend to keep it pacy.”
“We will be introducing a lot of tracks, besides the main one between the three protagonists. One interesting track has to do with an evil spirit and another one is about skeletons from the past,” he offered.
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.
