News Broadcasting
Bhaskar Das made chief strategy officer for Republic Media Network
NEW DELHI: Republic TV has elevated Bhaskar Das to the role of chief strategy officer, from his role as group president, channel founder MD and editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami confirmed to Indiantelevision.com in an exclusive fireside chat moderated by its founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari.
The elevation is a part of Goswami’s bigger plans to give the reigns of major company roles in the sales and distribution space to his team, so he can focus more on his editorial responsibilities.
Additionally, group CFO S Sundaram has been handed over the additional responsibilities as the new group president. He has played a key role in sorting the financial dealings for the group during the recent buyout of shares by Goswami.
A few weeks earlier, Repbulic had also announced the elevation of Hersh Bhandari and Priya Mukherjee to COOs.
Bhandari who was earlier serving as EVP (revenue) was handed over the responsibility to manage Republic Bharat as COO and Mukherjee, who was serving as president, distribution and international revenue was made COO–distribution, international revenue and OTT.
Goswami mentioned, “I have faith in my people. I think they'll do a great job and I think it was the right time for them to fly solo on their own so I can go back to what I wanted to do, after all. I didn't start Republic to sit into account and do sales. I think I'll be very free now and fantastic.”
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.
