News Broadcasting
Financial experts decode Budget 2020 at CNBC-TV18’s Townhall
MUMBAI: English business news channel — CNBC-TV18 of Network18 group held The Budget Townhall 2020 to analyse and have an open dialogue on the announcements made by the union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The fourth edition of the townhall witnessed economic and financial stakeholders come together in New Delhi to offer their expert perspective and decode the biggest economic policy event in the country.
The townhall panel moderated CNBC-TV18’s managing editor Shereen Bhan, comprised of policy architects and financial stakeholders such as NITI Aayog chief executive officer Amitabh Kant, revenue secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CBIC member tax policy Dr John Joseph, CBDT chairman Pramod Chandra Mody, expenditure secretary TV Somanathan, chief economic advisor Dr. Krishnamurthy Subramanian, DPIIT chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra, DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey, finance secretary Rajeev Kumar among others. The closing address at the townhall was given by IDFC FIRST Bank managing director and chief executive officer V Vaidyanathan.
The luminaries, together on a common platform, shared their in-depth analysis while evaluating the big-ticket announcements made across sectors.
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.
