News Broadcasting
etc ties up with Sony Music for joint marketing
Following close on the heels of its tie-up with the RPG-owned HMV Saregama, Etc has linked up a deal with Sony Music for joint marketing of selected albums.
The first joint venture called Jagratan is in a twin cassette album format and will comprise religious Jagrata bhajans and geets (devotional songs) rendered by the nightingale of Indian music Lata Mangeshkar exclusively for this album. The music is by Surendra Kohli and lyrics are by Balbir Nirdosh.
The album has been produced jointly by Sony, etc and Dainik Jagran – the largest circulated Hindi language newspaper in north India.
With the Navratras festival (Gujarati festival of nine nights of dancing and merriment) around the corner, this exercise is actually a tactical promotion of sorts. This tie-up has come about as etc’s morning band based on religion, is very strong and has a very good rapport with viewers.
The selling and production will be handled by Sony online distribution and etc will be carrying the online promos, with revenue being shared by both etc and Sony.
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.
