News Broadcasting
ATN opts for change in nomenclature
MUMBAI: ATN International, which launched the Ahimsaa Channel on 2 October 2003, has gone in for a name change and will now be known as Ahimsaa Global Media Limited.
According to a notice sent to the National Stock Exchange, the company whose board met yesterday, has decided to appoint Price Water House Coopers or any other management consultant for suggestions for restructuring of the company.
The company recently struck a deal with Fifth Avenue Media Services for distribution of Ahimsaa in India as well as overseas. It has also reached an agreement with the Government of India, Department of Space for telecasting the channel through the Noida teleport using INSAT – 3A. The 24-hour predominantly Hindi global satellite television channel was originally supposed to have launched on 30 January 2003, then on 15 August 2003 and finally took off on 2 October.
Promoted by Kolkata-based Santosh Kumar Jain, who besides being a partner in Aastha Television and CMM Music has also launched ATN World and ATN Bangla in West Bengal, Ahimsaa is backed by The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, headquartered in Mount Abu, India. The channel telecast talks on Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism and other religions. For women, there would be special shows like the gourmet special Aah Kya Swad , Ghar Beethe on self-employment opportunities and Haq on legal issues.
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.
