MAM
Awaaz of the Budget as CNBC AWAAZ Tops the Charts
63 per cent speech share and 76.4 per cent week lead seal its pole position.
MUMBAI: When the numbers did the talking, one awaaz rose above the rest. As finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered the Union Budget 2026 on 1 February, CNBC Awaaz tightened its grip on the Hindi business news space, emerging as the clear market leader during one of the most closely watched events of the financial calendar.
According to BARC data for HSM Urban, TG 22–40 M, during the live telecast of the Budget speech between 11:00 am and 12:30 pm, CNBC Awaaz commanded a formidable 63 per cent market share. Rival Zee Business trailed at 37 per cent. On a day when every decimal point matters, the gap was anything but marginal.
The dominance extended well beyond the speech window. Across the full Budget Day on 1 February 2026, CNBC Awaaz secured a 61.3 per cent market share, compared to Zee Business at 38.7 per cent, underlining sustained viewer preference throughout the day’s rolling coverage.
Budget Day is traditionally high voltage television, with audiences glued to screens tracking taxation tweaks, sectoral allocations, fiscal signals and their real time impact on markets. CNBC Awaaz’s mix of live decoding, expert panels, corporate reactions and trader insights appeared to strike a chord with its core investor audience.
The momentum did not fade with the closing bell. During Budget Week, Week 05’26, in HSM 10L plus markets among TG 22–40 M, the channel widened its lead further, capturing a commanding 76.4 per cent market share. Zee Business stood at 23.6 per cent, less than half of CNBC Awaaz’s share, reinforcing its grip beyond the headline announcements.
The leadership story was not confined to television. On the digital front, CNBC Awaaz also ranked among the world’s top viewed live news streams on Union Budget Day 2026. Between 11:00 am and 12:40 pm, the peak live window, the channel registered a peak concurrency of 765.1K, recording 3.5 times the viewership of Zee Business, according to Databeings.
In a landscape where business news is measured in both credibility and clicks, CNBC Awaaz appears to have balanced both. On Budget 2026, it was not just the fiscal math that added up. The ratings did too.
MAM
Sleepwell unveils nationwide sleep study on World Sleep Day
79 per cent use screens before bed, 36 per cent of 18–25-year-olds sleep ≤5 hours.
MUMBAI: Sleepwell just dropped the pillow truth bomb because when India’s sleeping less and scrolling more, even the mattress wants to stage an intervention. On World Sleep Day 2026, Sleepwell released its nationwide Sleep Study, painting a stark picture of India’s escalating sleep crisis. The findings show that 79% of Indians use screens right before bed, fuelling restless nights and drowsy days. Alarmingly, 36% of young adults aged 18–25 sleep five hours or less making them the country’s most sleep-deprived group.
The study also busts the myth of “catch-up sleep”, 65% of respondents actually sleep even later on weekends, pointing to increasingly irregular patterns that spill fatigue into the working week. Mattress discomfort emerged as a frequently overlooked culprit behind late-night wake-ups and constant leak-anxiety checks.
To drive the message home, Sleepwell’s CMO Puneet Gulati appeared on Zee Business, stressing that quality sleep isn’t a luxury, it’s foundational health. He highlighted how the right mattress can transform restless nights into restorative ones.
The brand doubled down with clever late-night activations, partnering with a quick-commerce platform to serve contextual ads between 11 pm and 3 am, gently nudging bleary-eyed scrollers to consider mattress discomfort as the reason they’re still awake and pointing them to the nearest Sleepwell store. Digital influencers and creators also shared relatable stories of how poor sleep fuels impulsive late-night behaviour.
In a nation that celebrates hustle but quietly pays for it in lost rest, Sleepwell isn’t just selling mattresses, it’s selling the radical idea that sometimes the bravest thing you can do is close your eyes and actually sleep well.
