News Broadcasting
Times Now Navbharat SD channel to be launched on 1 Jan 2022
Mumbai: Times Network has announced that Times Now Navbharat SD channel is slated to launch on 1 January 2022. The announcement was made during the second edition of Times Now Summit on Wednesday which was graced by union home minister Amit Shah.
Hindi news channel Times Now Navbharat HD went live in August followed by Hindi business news channel ET Now Swadesh in October. Amit Shah formally launched Times Now Navbharat at the event and wished Times Group success in their future endeavours.
The Times Now Summit 2021 was organised around the theme of celebrating India at 75, shaping India at 100. “For well over a decade and a half Times Network has pioneered developing informed opinion amongst India’s influencers,” said Times Network managing director and chief executive officer MK Anand, in his welcome address. “The last two years have been a forced pause that have helped us rethink, review our options and reset our gameplan. Completing 75 years seemed like the right time to contemplate what we can be at 100. Considering the tantalising options and possibilities the next 25 years look like it can make all the difference.”
He added, “After retaining No 1 position in English news with Times Now, we launched our first Hindi news channel Times Now Navbharat HD in August followed by Hindi business news channel ET Now Swadesh in October. Both the channels are doing well. Now in January, Times Now Navbharat will be launched in SD version which will make it available to the masses across India.”
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.
