News Broadcasting
Aaj Tak’s Health summit tackles India’s silent crisis
MUMBAI: India’s health is under the weather, and Aaj Tak is putting it back in the spotlight. The news channel will host the first edition of Health summit 2025 on 29 September, aligning with World heart day, to address the nation’s growing silent health emergency.
With more than 100 million people battling diabetes, obesity and fatty liver cases on the rise, and mental health concerns mounting, the summit promises to be a wake-up call. Policymakers, doctors, nutritionists and mental health experts will gather for a day of hard-hitting discussions on everything from cardiovascular health and childhood lifestyle diseases to nutrition myths and mental well-being.
Union health minister J P Nadda, yoga guru Swami Ramdev, and eminent specialists including Fortis Escorts’s Ashok Seth and AIIMS’s Rakesh Yadav will join the dialogue. Senior ministers from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh will also bring a policymaker’s perspective.
Anchored by Aaj Tak’s most trusted voices, the event aims not just to raise awareness but to inspire action: building pathways for a fitter, stronger, and healthier India.
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.
