News Broadcasting
ET Now completes nine years in the business news genre
MUMBAI: English business news (EBN) channel ET Now completed nine years of its existence on 17 June. It has also been a year since the channel revamped itself last August with the tagline ‘rise with India’. The move was to go beyond just business clips to be a holistic channel.
The channel claims that its debate show The Development Debate has shown consistency in ratings. ET Now managing editor Sandeep Gurumurthi said, “We want to play an active role in shifting the public discourse back to issues of development. We are today, the only channel doing that. But I am hopeful that over time, others will see merit and follow suit.”
EBN genre is still very niche with only five channels in the race – CNBC TV18, ET Now, BTVI, NDTV Profit and CNBC TV18 Prime HD. The genre contributes to less than one per cent of the total TV pie, where ET Now holds a comfortable position.
On the competition, Gurumurthi said, “We hope CNBC-TV18, BTVI and all other channels catch up with us and help us in shifting the media narrative back to development. I think it’s all about making a choice.”
He believes that the biggest challenge EBN channels are facing right now is that the genre has been boxed into a niche category apart from all the challenges that general English news channels face.
ET Now reaches 28 lakh viewers every month on an average with strong viewership from the six metros. Mumbai has traditionally contributed the most to viewership and remains the trend as informed by Gurumurthi. There are some channels that get disproportionate viewership from markets like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala. “There are also instances where for some business channels, a market gets active for three weeks contributing 70 per cent to their viewership and then for the rest of year contributes three or four TVTs,” he added.
He believes that the channel’s strategy remains to consolidate its position as a credible, independent and unbiased provider of news and insights to the get-ahead Indian. The aim is to do whatever it takes to remain consistent with the channel’s tagline. With the four upcoming assembly elections, the channel intends to cover them with the same intensity and rigour as a general news channel would.
News Broadcasting
Network18 channels lead YouTube news viewership in March 2026
CNN-News18, News18 India and CNBC channels top categories with record views
MUMBAI: When the world hit refresh on breaking news, Network18’s channels were already streaming ahead. As geopolitical tensions and war-driven headlines fuelled a surge in global news consumption, the network’s digital playbook delivered big clocking record Youtube viewership across English, Hindi and business news categories in March 2026.
At the forefront was CNN-News18, which emerged as the clear leader in the English news segment with 130 million live and video-on-demand views. The channel edged past competitors such as Times of India (126.5 million), Times Now (101.1 million), India Today (88.2 million) and NDTV (77.5 million), according to Databeings data for March.
In the Hindi news arena, News18 India delivered a commanding performance, racking up a staggering 3,297 million views on YouTube. The channel comfortably outpaced NDTV India, which recorded 3,119 million views, underlining its deep reach and consistent engagement with mass audiences, as per Playboard data.
The network’s dominance wasn’t confined to general news. In the Hindi business segment, CNBC Awaaz topped the charts with 92 million views, narrowly ahead of Zee Business (90 million) and well ahead of ET Now Swadesh (57 million). Meanwhile, its English counterpart CNBC-TV18 posted a strong 58 million views, reinforcing the network’s cross-category strength.
The spike in viewership reflects a broader shift in audience behaviour, with viewers increasingly turning to digital platforms particularly Youtube for real-time updates and in-depth coverage during high-intensity news cycles. For Network18, the numbers signal more than just scale; they underline the effectiveness of a multi-platform strategy that blends speed, credibility and continuous coverage.
In a month where the news never paused, it seems viewers chose to stay tuned where the stream never stopped.
