News Broadcasting
Aaj Tak was the most-searched keyword during counting hours
Mumbai: Aaj Tak was the most searched keyword across Google during counting hours on 10 March, the brodcaster said in a statement released on Tuesday.
The nation was anticipating the election results from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur.
As per Google trends, Aaj Tak had the highest search rank more than the political parties that were contesting the elections. With an impressive search volume of one million+, Aaj Tak was trending in the top ten searches (as per Google trends on 10 March). The keyword Aaj Tak was searched for, even more than the political parties including the likes of BJP, Congress, and AAP or SP running for the chief minister’s office.
People searched specifically for election-centric news by typing in the keyword ‘Aaj Tak’ apart from keying AajTak news, Aaj Tak Live, Aaj Tak News Live on google. The Hindi news brand was even more searched than political bigwigs such as Yogi Adithyanath, Akhilesh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal, and even prime minister Narendra Modi.
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.
