News Broadcasting
Assamese channel Prag News engages Kunal Deshamukhya as COO
MUMBAI: Prag News – Assam’s oldest news channel – has got a new operational boss. Veteran Kunal Deshamukhya has joined AM Television Pvt Ltd – the company which runs the news channel – as chief operating officer.
Kunal has been in the television and distribution trade and has in the past worked with Star India, Star Den, BBC Worldwide, GTPL Hathway, Digi Jadoo Broadband and Afghani channel Ariana Radio and TV network. He has had stints with Joyco, Mother Dairy and has also tried his hand at turning entrepreneur.
Prag News which is beaming off a GSat 30 transponder is owned by chairman & managing director Sanjive Narain.
A free to air service, it is available on various DPOs including top ones like: Tata Play, Airtel DTH, and Dish TV.
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.
