News Broadcasting
CNBC India goes soft on features for women viewers
MUMBAI: The content remains serious business as usual, but TV18 is slowly including the woman executive in its purview as well.
From lighter weekend programming to segments within shows that target the working SEC AB+ female, TV 18 could shortly be making a show that caters mainly to the fairer gender. As with other niche channels that have discovered that the female TG is one that cannot be forgotten, CNBC India too, is discovering the viewing pattern and might of women.
TV18 executive director Vandana Malik says with CNBC broadening the scope of content to include serious topics albeit in a lighter vein, it is now focusing on a wider target audience as well. The channel recently devoted a four part series on women’s fitness in the weekend Good Life show. While the Sunday Brunch slot also tries to move away from the decidedly executive male TG the channel targets on weekdays, the popular Trendmill also includes a gourmet section now, points out Malik.
Most of the features on CNBC India currently have a weekday run with a weekend repeat in order to cater to a diverse viewer profile. While TV18 has been the forerunner of anchor based and talk shows like Nikki Tonight on Star Plus and reality shows like Bhanwar on Sahara, Malik, feels that the soap genre is here to stay.
It could be one of the reasons why the content provider is currently not visible on any of the satellite channels it earlier catered to. Malik says that although content on CNBC would never go ‘soft’ as the core competency of the channel would remain hard business news during trading hours, the scope of lighter features that could include the younger generation along with working women would definitely increase.
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.
