News Broadcasting
Demoted Zee exec Samir Ahluwalia calls it a day
MUMBAI: After the confirmation of the exclusive news of the demotion of a top Zee executive published in Indiantelevision.com in June this year, his descent was a foregone conclusion.
The exit of Zee Business editor Samir Ahluwalia two months after your portal broke the demotion news has now been confirmed. Ahluwalia today officially called it a day after 19 years of association with Zee Media.
Sources stated that Ahluwalia received several warnings from ZEEL chairman Dr. Subhash Chandra in the past for his connection with the case of alleged extortion of Rs 100 crore from a company owned by industrialist and former MP Naveen Jindal.
In a townhall meeting at Zee a few months ago, the editor was hauled up by Chandra’s confidante, Amit Jain. The latter reportedly reminded Ahluwalia about his job becoming unsafe due to this case.
Ahluwalia had also spent time in Tihar Jail as he is also an accused along with news anchor Sudhir Chaudhary in the extortion case.
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.
