News Broadcasting
News18 India Presents ‘Lapete Mein Netaji: Election Special’ from Ground Zero
MUMBAI: Continuing its commitment to provide extensive and differentiated content ahead of the upcoming assembly elections, News18 India will present election special edition of one its flagship shows, Lapete Mein Netaji. With an innovative take on the ‘Hasya Kavi Sammelan’ format, the show will go on-ground, outside the studio to bring politicians, poets and people together on one platform.
As a part of the channel's election programming of Sabse Bada Dangal, the prime-time show, Lapete Mein Netaji will travel to Gwalior, Bhopal, Indore, Vidisha, Jaipur & Alwar in the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to hold discussions at the ground level and bring sharp sarcasm, satire and a sense of humor to the political discourse. The show will bring some of the most renowned local poets along with the city voters face-to-face with some of the biggest newsmakers.
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.
