News Broadcasting
Aahad Mangrolwala joins Prime9 News as west ad sales head
HYDERABAD: Prime9 News has appointed Aahad Mangrolwala as region head west ad sales for TV and digital, strengthening its commercial leadership as competition for ad spends intensifies.
Mangrolwala brings more than 19 years of experience in broadcast media sales, spanning strategy, client management and team leadership. In his new role, he will be responsible for driving revenue growth across the western markets, with a focus on integrated tv and digital offerings.
Before joining Prime9 News, Mangrolwala served as west head of ad sales at Sun TV Network. He earlier led the west region at Q TV and spent over a decade at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he handled sales strategy for multiple regional and national channels and worked closely with leading media agencies.
Announcing the move on LinkedIn, Mangrolwala said he was excited to take on the new mandate at Prime9 News, signalling a renewed push by the network to deepen advertiser relationships and expand its footprint in a crowded news and digital landscape.
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.
