News Broadcasting
India TV announces key elevations in editorial leadership
MUMBAI: It’s a celebration time in India TV office as the chairman and editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma has announced key elevations and appointments in editorial leadership.
The senior executive editor Piyush Padmakar has been elevated to the position of managing editor – news. He will head news and editorial and shall also be responsible for input and output, daily planning, programming and promotions.
Along with him, the assistant managing editor Anita Sharma has been elevated to the position of managing editor – news operations. She will be heading all newsroom manpower and operations, response, archives and co-ordination with all other departments. And, the senior executive editor Amrendra Pratap Singh has also been elevated as managing editor. He will be heading the new project.
Sharma stated, “I am extremely pleased to announce this young, energetic and truly aggressive team to lead the editorial function. With this new team in place, I feel very confident that the channel and the company continues to follow its aggressive growth path.”
In other key elevations, Sachin Sahay has been made the editor – output. He will now be responsible for news output and feeds with additional responsibility of training.
Pranay Yadav, who has been elevated as editor-political, will now head Aaj Ki Baat as the editor and producer. He will also be additionally responsible for reporting based special shows.
As a key new appointment, Utpal Chaudhry, who has moved in from ABP News, has been appointed as the editor – input. He will head news input and shall be responsible for daily planning and news reporting, interaction with bureaus and ideas. Surender Gumber has been elevated as the editor – assignment who will now head the assignment department, news gathering and logistics.
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.
