News Broadcasting
I&B minister Anurag Thakur launches Bharat24
Mumbai: The union minister for information & broadcasting and sports & youth affairs Anurag Thakur, launched the new national Hindi news channel, The tagline of the channel is “Vision of new India!”
Speaking at the launch event on Sunday, Thakur wished all the best to the team. “I congratulate Dr Jagdeesh Chandra and the entire team of Bharat24 on this new venture. The media is the fourth pillar of democracy and should work as a bridge between the government and the public and I am sure Bharat24 will execute this responsibility with utmost seriousness,” he said.
Bharat24 CEO and editor-in-chief Dr Jagdeesh Chandra commented, “We assure the minister that Bharat24 will reflect the aspirations of the youth, the multi-polarity of emerging India and will work as a bridge between our audience and the government.”
Bharat24 managing editor Ajay Kumar, Bharat24 chief business officer & strategic partner to the board Manoj Jagyasi, Bharat24 senior editor Syed Umar, Bharat24 senior anchors Mimansa Malik, Sachin Arora, Naina Yadav and Poornima Mishra, editorial consultant Shashikant Sharma, political editor Aditi Nagar, and others were present during the launch.
Kumar said, “The union government of India, various state governments, multilateral agencies, and international partners of India, all together, have come a long way in building the New India. We, Bharat 24, believe that a positive connection between the governments, state policies & the people at large is the need of the hour.”
Adding to this, Jagyasi commented, “With bureaus in all states, Bharat 24, will set a benchmark for news reporting and branding. It is a matter of pride that on the first day of launch, the channel has opened with many credible advertisers and we shall only grow bigger and better as time goes on,” he added.
Bharat24 will be available on all major DTH & cable platforms, including Tata Play – 531, Dish TV – 667, D2H – 750, Airtel DTH – 373, DEN – 318, Radiant – 308, RM Network – 109, Siti Network – 312, Hathway – 217, ICNCL WB – 175, Digiana Cable – 308, Haldwani Digital Services – 110.
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.
