News Broadcasting
Alpha Marathi opinion poll anticipate Congress-NCP to win
MUMBAI: The second phase of an opinion poll on Maharashtra Assembly Elections conducted between 19 to 23 September, found Congress-NCP is anticipated to sweep a clear majority by winning 163 to 169 seats, while Sena-BJP alliance is expected to win 98 to 102 seats.
The outcome of the poll was revealed in a special programme Janadesh on Alpha Marathi channel on Saturday night. The programme will be repeated on Alpha TV on 26 September at 1 pm.
The opinion poll was conducted by Alpha Marathi and Taleem, Ahmedabad based organisation, where 3475 voters from 36 constituencies were interviewed for the poll. However, the study signifies 28 per cent of voters are still undecided on whom to vote or may not vote at all. This number has increased by three per cent over the first phase of the poll, informs the official release.
Alpha Marathi business head Nitin Vaidya says, “The second phase of opinion poll is self explanatory that the voters are looking forward to the Congress-NCP alliance government. It is clearly indicative that the voter’s decision is evolving. Alpha Marathi, decided to undertake this opinion poll with the prime objective of understanding the main issues which the electorate wants to be addressed. Whether the voters are inclined towards INC / NCP ruling party and the likelihood of their returning them to power or to BJP / Shiv Sena alliance.”
The election issues, which concerned the respondents, ranked the order of concern on development (87 per cent), farmers’ related issues (85 per cent), unemployment (84 per cent) and good governance (78 per cent), criminalisation of politics is concerned for 46 per cent respondents, separate Vidarbha 27 per cent and Savarkar controversy 25 per cent. While only 51 per cent respondents have favoured reservations in jobs, only 23 per cent respondents have opined that it was proper to launch Tiranga Yatra, informs the official communiqué.
The poll also highlights that 30 per cent of the respondents favoured chief minister Susheelkumar Shinde over the other contenders, followed by BJP’s Gopinath Munde having support of nine per cent and Uddhav Thacekray having eight per cent. However 34 per cent respondents were unable to say who they would prefer as next chief minister.
According to the poll results, as much as 27 per cent voters plan to vote for Congress followed by 15 per cent for NCP; BJP -Shiv Sena have been favoured by only 12 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. The remaining five per cent voters are distributed among various regional parties, the visible being the Bahujan Samaj Party with two per cent voters opting for it.
When asked on the formation of the next government, around 41 per cent of respondents favoured Congress/NCP, followed by with 26 per cent BJP/Shiv Sena combine will come to power. Here too, the percentage of cannot say is huge 31 per cent.
In the first phase of the opinion poll conducted last month, Congress-NCP combine expected to win 144 seats and Sena-BJP expected to win 128. Other parties and independents were predicted to win 16 seats.
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.
