News Broadcasting
ET Now ropes in Ayesha Faridi to anchor markets’ shows
MUMBAI: English business news channel ET Now has roped in Ayesha Faridi as markets’ anchor.
Faridi comes from CNBC TV18. Recently, ET Now appointed Ashu Dutt as chief consulting editor, financial markets.
On ET Now, Faridi will be anchoring the Chartbusters, a hour round-up on the buzzing stocks at 2 pm. She will also anchor Markets Now, the countdown to closing bell from 2:30 pm to 4 pm and co-anchor MarketSense with Andy Mukherjee from 11 am – 12 noon.
In CNBC TV18, she has anchored popular shows like Your Stocks, Bulls Eye, Power Breakfast and Movers & Shakers.
ET now executive editor Andy Mukherjee said, “We are happy to have Ayesha on board. She is a great professional and her in-depth knowledge of markets and experience in anchoring a wide variety of formats will add new dimensions to ET Now’s markets programming.”
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: 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.
