News Broadcasting
BBC Worldwide re-equips advertising sales team in India
MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide has rejigged the structure and responsibility of the advertising sales team in India.
As part of the restructuring process, BBC Worldwide team is bifurcated into news and non-news streams. Seema Mohapatra has been promoted to regional sales director, BBC Worldwide South Asia. Mohapatra was earlier head of advertising sales for India.
Taranjeet Singh has been elevated to head of advertising sales, News, BBC Worldwide, South Asia. Prior to the promotion, Singh was regional sales manager, BBC World, North and East India.
Singh will be responsible for revenue generation, client servicing and performance management for BBC World and bbc.com. As part of his team, and reporting to him, will be Jabir Merchant who has been promoted to senior sales account manager, News, West, and Gaurav Pahwa, account manager, News, North.
Neena Dasgupta has been elevated to the post of head of advertising sales, non–news, BBC Worldwide, South Asia. She was earlier regional manager, West and South.
In her new post, Dasgupta will be focused on driving advertising sales for BBC Worldwide’s non-news portfolio of television and online products and services, from both existing clients and new categories and brands across the country.
Likewise, Komal Sangani has been promoted to senior sales account manager, Non–news, West, and in New Delhi Jaya Chaudhry becomes senior account executive, Non–news.
BBC Worldwide VP sales, Asia and Australasia Sunita Rajan said, “I am confident that our new team structure will further help strengthen the strategic direction required for growth in such a dynamic market, and across the wider South Asian markets, as well as bringing greater focus to our business across BBC World, Global Channels and bbc.com throughout the region.”
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.
