News Broadcasting
Big screens, bigger numbers as Network18 switches news to CTV
MUMBAI: The news has officially moved from the palm to the sofa. Network18 has delivered a landmark digital performance in 2025, riding a sharp surge across Connected TV (CTV), Youtube and social platforms to cement its leadership in India’s fast-evolving digital news ecosystem.
At the heart of this growth was CTV, which emerged as the new living-room screen, reviving multi-generational co-viewing and blending the authority of television with the freedom of digital choice. Network18 recorded 2.5 billion CTV views in 2025, a 26 percent year-on-year jump, driven by longer watch times and deeper engagement. The gains were powered by a deliberate cross-screen strategy that followed viewers seamlessly from mobile to large screens, across languages and formats.
As smart TV penetration and broadband access accelerate, CTV is rapidly becoming a performance-ready platform for both audiences and advertisers. Network18’s scale places it at the forefront of this shift, positioning news as a shared, large-screen experience once again.
Commenting on the milestone Network18 Connected chief growth officer Pranav Bakshi said the performance underlined CTV’s potential as an anchor screen for news consumption in India, while reinforcing the group’s focus on innovation and storytelling at scale.
Looking ahead, Network18 is sharpening its focus on CTV-led growth in 2026, with plans to invest in large-screen-first content curation and work more closely with advertisers on targeting and measurement-led solutions. The group is also building a global-grade CTV infrastructure and solutions stack, with presence across major OEM and OTT ecosystems including JioHotstar, JioTV, Samsung, Xiaomi and LG. A CTV-first Network18 app is slated for launch in 2026 to deliver a more curated big-screen experience.
Beyond CTV, the network’s digital dominance continued across platforms. In 2025, Network18 logged 56 billion total views, the highest for any news publisher globally in a single calendar year. Watch hours surged 87 percent, rising from 1.4 billion to 3 billion, signalling sustained audience attention rather than fleeting clicks.
On Youtube, 12 Network18 channels ranked number one in their respective categories in December 2025, as the group crossed 6 billion views, nearly three times that of its closest competitors. The network now commands a 200-million-strong Youtube audience, publishing content in English, Hindi and over 13 regional languages, while its social footprint has expanded to 386 million followers.
Taken together, the numbers underline a clear shift, as screens grow bigger, so does Network18’s digital influence, reinforcing its position as India’s most powerful news and information network in the age of platform-first consumption.
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.
