News Broadcasting
Jagdish Chandra quits as Zee Media’s regional news CEO
MUMBAI: Zee Media CEO for regional news network, Jagdish Chandra, has decided to move away from the network and has put down his papers. Chandra was on a five-year contract with the network but has decided to quit only after a year in service.
Zee Media’s current deputy CEO of regional channel Purushottam Vaishnav will replace Chandra.
Chandra joined Zee Media in January 2017 and has been known for his contribution in making the network’s regional channels a success.
During his tenure at Zee, he looked after the regional portfolio which included channels like Zee Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh, Zee Purvaiya (Bihar-Jharkhand), Zee Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand (India 24×7), Zee Salam, Zee 24 Ghanta, Zee 24 Taas and Zee Punjab-Haryana-Himachal Pradesh.
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.
