News Broadcasting
CNBC India looks to beef up evening band, launches ‘Storyboard’
As part of continuing efforts to expand its viewership base in the critical 8 pm to 11 pm evening band, CNBC India today announced the launch of Storyboard – aimed at the advertising community.
The first episode of Storyboard airs tomorrow at 8 pm with a repeat telecast at 11 pm. The episode will be screened again on Sunday at 11:30 am and 8 pm.
Haresh Chawla, CEO CNBC India, says: “There was a felt need to spice up our programming in the evening. So, we introduced the evening Executive Suite band for senior and middle management executives with a slew of new shows. Storyboard is the latest in the line-up and there are more such interesting shows in the pipeline.”
According to Chawla, Storyboard’s primary focus is to explore what goes on in the advertising world – the latest campaigns, advertising pitches, wins and losses, analyse strategies, delve into issues that concern and influence consumers.
With the launch of Storyboard, the number of India-centric programmes on the channel goes up to 21.
Chawla said at present CNBC India had 10 hours of India-centric programmes on air which would go up to an optimum of 10-and-a-half-hours, not more.
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.
