News Broadcasting
ABP Network’s election centre metaverse shatters records with groundbreaking numbers
Mumbai: ABP Network announced that its newly launched Election Centre Metaverse achieved groundbreaking numbers on the counting day and afterwards, recording over 25,000 global users in more than 500 parallel rooms. Over one lakh interactions with Live TV, VoDs, and Short Videos have been observed after the launch as the users visited the election scenes, engaged in live stream views, played games, cast virtual votes, and posted selfies, demonstrating a new standard for scalable virtual events accessible right from a mobile phone.
ABP Network is the first media house in India to step into the Metaverse realm, specifically in the election space. This platform is designed to revolutionise the way election coverage is experienced, coinciding with the 2023 Assembly election results and ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due in 2024.
Speaking on the initiative, ABP Network CEO Avinash Pandey said: “ABP Network has always stayed ahead of the curve in conceptualising and adopting modern technologies. The success of ABPLIVE’s election centre metaverse has once again established ABP Network as a torchbearer of innovation in digital news publishing in India. This is a key milestone in our journey to integrate AI Tech to make our coverage stand out in the news industry.”
Users also shared their experiences on social media –
#ABPResults #ElectionResults My Onestop solution for all Election 2023 Result related stats, news and analysis! Join me now and Experience the ABPLIVE Election Centre! https://t.co/jyR3sOXrjj
— Satyabrata Dey (@Satya741248) December 3, 2023
#ABPResults #ElectionResults My Onestop solution for all Election 2023 Result related stats, news and analysis! Join me now and Experience the ABPLIVE Election Centre! https://t.co/kIgsG16SVn
— Sunita (@sunita_techie) December 3, 2023
#ABPVerse #ABPLIVE Breaks New Ground With First-Ever #Metaverse Experience#ABPResults
Experience #ABPLIVE Election Centre: https://t.co/eMRoZ1XDTG
— Meeqat Hashmi (@MeeqatHashmi) December 3, 2023
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.
