News Broadcasting
Headlines Today rolls out new look
NEW DELHI: Riding a wave of enthusiastic responses to its initial public offering (IPO), the Aroon Purie-controlled TV Today Network today initiated in a quiet manner changes in the on-air look of its English news channel, Headlines Today.
Cable industry sources told indiantelevision.com that from 7 pm on Sunday, Headlines Today has started sporting a new look, though the content, which has been the butt of severe criticism from TV purists, remains unchanged. The set has changed (read, the background), so have the graphics; and the ticker too is missing during the evening.
TVTN manages the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak and Headlines Today and, according to Purie, would look at bringing and starting new niche channels in the near future. The ticker, as run in most news channels is absent during the evening. The reason for this is that the ticker would be used for conveying news that is useful for the viewers and not to give information that would be otherwise be given by other news channels.
However, to an average viewer, these changes are not very apparent. During the road shows leading up to the IPO, Purie and others have been saying, on being asked, that Headlines Today is slated to undergo a major revamp.
Meanwhile, several times oversubscribed, the TVTN IPO is scheduled to make its debut on the stock markets on 19 January.
Though the name under which the scrip would be traded is still not sure, it is expected that it would be TVTN.
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.
