News Broadcasting
Discovery boosts India centric content with more variety
MUMBAI: Infotainment channel Discovery’s aim this year is to forge a closer viewer connect through more local content. To achieve this it has increased the Discover India block from one hour to two hours.
This sees two different documentary specials airing back to back every Saturday from 8-10 pm with a repeat on Sunday from 9-11 am. A channel spokesperson points out that the aim is to bring in more diversity into the content. The channel, from September to December will showcase programmes on a variety of themes ranging from Aids to Kashmir to successful people in Mumbai.
Coinciding with the World Aids Day in December, it will air the special Highway in My Veins, which will tell the personal story of truck drivers who are affected by the menace of Aids. They spend a lot of time away from their families and so some of them seek refuge in drugs. 14 million truck drivers carry millions of tons of cargo from one part of India to another. They are the lifeline for many Indians but they have to deal with oppressive and dangerous conditions each day of their lives.
Non-literacy, lack of healthcare and difficult conditions contribute to their high-risk behaviour. Combined with the statistics of road accidents this has given them the stigma of being carriers of death rather than carriers of life.
An animal themed special that will air is called Cherub Of The Mist. In the Kangchenjunga range the Cherub uncurls its innocent face with white markings, cat like whiskers and long racoon like tail in the misty mountains of the Singalila National Park.
The show has footage from a Panda’s life. The aim is to unravel the mystery behind the secretive life of the little cherub and bring alive to the worldwide viewers the irresistible charms of the fire cat. The show marks the debut directorial venture by wildlife film-maker Naresh Bedi’s son. The special won the Vatavaran Awards for wildlife films in 2005.
A special that looks at Kashmir through the eyes of a young man is called Floating Lamp Of The Shadow Valley. The protagonist Arif is the youngest boatman on the Dal Lake. Each day he toils to earn the living in strife-torn Kashmir.At 10 he is the sole bread-winner for his family of five. Abandoned by their father, a runaway militant, now an unemployed drug addict, Arif and his family live under perennial shadow of tyranny. Through Arif this documentary examines the state of Kashmir and the awakening of hope.
Mumbaiites would be interested in Merchant Princes Of Bombay. The merchant princes that Discovery deals with are Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, who dominated the so-called China (read opium) trade; David Sassoon, who owned the most powerful trading house in the Orient; Premchand Roychand, whose home came to be labelled “a miniature stock exchange”; and another legendary Jamsetjee, Jamsetji Tata, who ushered the Industrial Revolution in India.
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.
