News Broadcasting
TV9 Network launches News9 Mediaverse
Mumbai: TV9 Network, India’s largest news network has always transformed and disrupted the industry, leaving legacy players far behind.
Building on its reputation of disrupting the television space, TV9 Network, the largest news network in the country, has announced the launch of News9 Mediaverse, India’s first fully integrated digital-first English news brand.
In a move that is set to revolutionise the future of news, News9 Mediaverse brings together News9 Plus, the world’s first news OTT; along with News9 Live, India’s first and only 24/7 digital exclusive news stream and News9Live.com, the website is the fastest growing English text platform.
The integrated service, with all three streams feeding one another, is set to define India’s first ever ‘Mediaverse’, a proposition that is billed to become a global benchmark.
“The world has undergone a complete metamorphosis. With the advent of the internet, digitization, mobile penetration, and now AI, it is a completely different world compared to the one we were born in. The world of entertainment media has changed. How could news remain the same? Which is where News9 Mediaverse comes in,” said TV9 Network MD and CEO Barun Das.
“When you talk about any transition, the discerning English audience are always the early adopters. For this upwardly mobile segment, time is in really short supply. Naturally, they want content on their terms -whatever and whenever. This app is for ‘Genflix’ – a term we proudly coined to define the audience. We’ve finally converted news into content and advertisement into brand stories,” added Das.
Here comes a new-age proposition for the new-age news consumer: News9 Mediaverse, India’s first fully integrated digital English news brand, adeptly amalgamating three entities, as follows – News9 Plus, the world’s first news OTT, creates unrivalled world-class content, delivering an unmatched experience with journalism that reimagines storytelling, complemented by a Netflix-like look and feel.
News9 Live, going live from a state-of-the-art studio, is India’s first and only 24/7 digital exclusive news stream. Tailored for the discerning English audience, it offers English news presented in a revolutionary format. With their robust Flexible Point Chart (FPC), news is delivered dynamically based on its merit, without the confines of bulletins or programs, only news shows with a conversational delivery of news – skipping the old age news reading in an elegant informal setup conducive for free-flowing discussion. News9 Live is present across the connected TV ecosystem, which includes live streaming platforms such as Fire TV, Patchwall, Cloud TV, and TCL etc. along with aggregator platforms such as Distro TV and Yupp TV.
News9Live.com is India’s fastest growing English news website, racing to become the number one standalone English digital website.
The synergy between News9 Plus and News9 Live is set to redefine how the audience engages with news content. News9 Plus seamlessly feeds into News9 Live, curating a captivating and immersive content bouquet that caters to viewers seeking in-depth perspectives and real-time updates on current news developments. This bridges the gap between comprehensive news coverage and instant updates, providing a holistic understanding of current affairs.
Bringing back storytelling to the news, News9 Mediaverse remains dedicated to offering top-notch content to the discerning English news audience.a
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: 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.
