News Broadcasting
IBN18 Q1 standalone net loss at Rs 190 mn
MUMBAI: IBN18 Broadcast has posted a standalone net loss of Rs 190 million for the three months ended 30 June, swinging away from a net profit position as it gained political advertising from the general elections in the earlier-year quarter.
Total income dropped 9 per cent to Rs 520 million, indicating the windfall from political ads was short-lived. In the first quarter of FY’10, the company had posted a standalone net profit of Rs 170 million on a revenue of Rs 570 million.
The standalone results constitute the financials of English and Hindi news channels CNN IBN and IBN7.
In the quarter under review, IBN18 has reported an operating loss of Rs 70 million, up from a loss of Rs 60 million in the prior-year period.
Expenses rose 15.68 per cent to Rs 590 million, as against Rs 510 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
IBN18’s consolidated net loss stood at Rs 110 million. Total income was at Rs 1.73 billion, while expenditure stood at Rs 1.68 billion for the quarter.
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.
