News Broadcasting
Goodbyes are never easy! Sudhanshu Vats bids adieu to Viacom18
MUMBAI: “Goodbyes are never easy, especially when you bid farewell to such an incredible family. But it's a goodbye for now. Until we meet again, sharing something that made me laugh and gave me a tiny moment of joy during these tough times.”
That’s the touching farewell message Sudhanshu Vats posted in his Twitter as he said adieu to Viacom18, a subsidiary of Network18, after his eventful eight-year-long stint as group chief executive officer and managing director.
He tweeted the goodbye message along with a farewell video, which seemed to have been made by Viacom18 team as an ode to his long association with the organisation. The short fun-to-watch video begins with this message: “In case you forgot the last townhall, here's SV with the highlights." The funky video has Vats making a presentation, and is interspersed with quirky moments and memes.
In a new tweet, he put out this message along with another farewell video: “Thank you to the entire @viacom18 family. I will always hold you close to my heart.”
His goodbye tweets are getting flooded with hearty wishes of all kinds from well-wishers and colleagues: from the plain all-the-best wishes to viacom18-will-never-be-the-same-again. And the best, as they say, is yet to come!
Vats left Viacom18 on 14 April after expanding the media network’s reach into newer realms of consumer products and digital all the while strengthening its position in segments like regional, kids, Hindi and English entertainment. He also helmed the launch of its video streaming service Voot.
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.
