News Broadcasting
Doordarshan invests Rs 300 million on Indian classics
MUMBAI: In order to sustain viewers interest, Doordarshan has commissioned creative producers for making programmes in the selected genre of Indian classics, children’s literature, art and culture, humour and environment.
Accordingly, an investment of Rs 300 million has been made to produce nearly 800 half-an-hour episodes on Indian classics in 15 languages including Kashmiri.
“We have assigned prominent creative producers to create serials on some of the popular Indian literary classics. Prasar Bharati is spending about Rs 300 million on this project. DD has already started telecasting the series under Katha Sarita,” Doordarshan director general Navin Kumar told indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of a press conference organised to announce the initiative.
The works of eminent authors under Indian Classic series have been selected by the Core Committee on Indian Classics under the Chairpersonship of Prasar Bharati board member Chitra Mudgal. The Committee took into consideration Sahitya Academy Award winning books, Jnanpeeth Award winning writers and other eminent classics.
Some of the eminent authors whose works are being featured under Indian classics include Agyayae, Jainender Kumar, Hari Shankar Parasai, Himanshu Joshi, Shivani, Manjul Bhagat, Ila Chand Joshi, Ghalib, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Kaifi Azmi, Kishan Chandra, Manoj Basu, Tara Shankar Bandhopadhyay, T Shivashankar Pillai, Cho Ramaswamy and Kalhan.
Eminent / award winning producers who have been assigned to do the programmes under the scheme include Shyam Bengal, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Girish Karnad, Amol Palekar, Muzafffar Ali, T S Narasimhan, Sagar Saharadi, Jahnu Barooah, Gautam Ghosh, A K Bir, Jyoti Swarup, Kamini Kaushal, Naresh Bedi, Benoy K Behl, Mike Pandey, Farooq Masoodi, Preeti Sapru, Suhasini Mulay, Kalpana Lazmi and Manju Singh.
DD 1 has already started telecasting the Katha Sarita series from 14 May. The series has been placed in the Sunday 11 am slot. Each classic will have a 13 episode run.
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.
