News Broadcasting
Etv Marathi lines up budget specials
ETV Marathi is running 30-minute specials as part of its coverage of the Union Budget. The specials, which began airing on 21 February will continue till 1 March. On 28 February, ETV Marathi will be telecasting the Union Budget live from 11 am to 3 PM
The pre-budget specials focus on specific themes like agriculture, direct taxes, people and savings, indirect taxes, information technology and the budget, small scale sector industries and budget as well as disinvestment and the budget. There will also be a stress on the achievement of the government of India in containing fiscal deficit and the current account deficit.
The pre-budget specials will discuss with people the fate of the last budget and whether it met their expectations. Whether the performance of the country was up to the mark. Through these programmes ETV also proposes to inform the viewers about how to understand the budget and simplify the difficult terms for the viewers.
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.
