News Broadcasting
CNBC introduces ‘Pehla Kadam’ for new investors
MUMBAI: CNBC Awaaz in association with NSDL and NSE has launched Pehla Kadam, an education initiative for Indian investors keen to invest in the stock market.
The investor education initiative has been divided into three aspects which include a learner’s kit for investors, a website on Pehla Kadam and a weekly show on CNBC Awaaz.
The finance minister P. Chidambaram has unveiled the learner’s kit which will be handed over to every new investor who opens a demat account across the country. The kit contains a guide which answers every query related to investment basics along with insights and information.
The Pehla Kadam website will help Indians to unlock all their queries on investment, while the show on CNBC Awaaz will feature experts from the industry. These experts will simplify investment and educate the first time investor with necessary information about the stock market. The initiative has been sponsored by Reliance Money.
TV18 group CEO Haresh Chawla said, “With CNBC Awaaz’s initiatives for our investors, we now have 60 per cent of the market share in the Hindi business news genre. Through our ‘Pehla Kadam’ initiative, we intend to reach prospective investors across India, who are reluctant about investing in stock markets largely due to lack of knowledge and understanding of the market and fear of risk. As a consumer focused channel, we have taken this initiative to empowering our viewers with information which will help them make intelligent and informed decisions.”
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.
