News Broadcasting
All channels to sing National Anthem Saturday
Varied renditions of the National Anthem will feature on all television channels in the country on Republic Day as the country gears to celebrate its 52nd Republic Day tomorrow.
The initiative is the brainchild of BharatBala Productions, and is backed by the Confederation of Indian Industry. The producers have got celebrated vocalists like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Pt Bhimsen Joshi, Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia, DK Pattamal and Jagjit Singh to sing Jana Gana Mana for the small screen. The music for the project has been arranged by AR Rahman and the films have been directed by Bala and Kanika. The duo of Lata and Asha are scheduled to make their appearance together in a common rendition.
Each film has the artists singing the Anthem in their own style, according to a release, giving music buffs a chance to see the subtle variations that the musicians bring to the Anthem. These exclusive films will be telecast throughout the day tomorrow on all TV channels including Star News, Aaj Tak, Set Max, Doordarshan, Doordarshan Metro, DD International, DD Sports and all DD regional Kendras, Channel V, B4U Music & Movies, Universal, MTV, etc, Sahara, Sabe TV, Asianet, Eenadu TV, Raj TV, Sun TV, the Zee channels and Jaya TV & Vijay TV.
BharatBala Productions are veterans in the television field and have created several televison commercials. Their recent efforts include films such as Maa Tujhe Salaam-Vande Mataram, Vande Mataram 2 and Desh ka Salaam.
BharatBala Productions have also made a documentary titled, Gurus of Peace which involved filming peace laureates like Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama; Mikhail Gorbachev; Yasser Arafat; Shimon Peres and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
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.
