News Broadcasting
MTV network India setting up a new team
MUMBAI: MTV Networks India has announced a line up of new appointments and promoted some senior executives to bolster its team.
Ranjan Narayan has joined as MTV Networks India finance team head while Sonia Chowdhry is going to head Nick programming. Sameer Mazgaonkar will head Nick all India ad sales.
MTV Networks’ vice presidents, Cyrus Oshidar (content & creative) and Sanjev Hiremath (licensing & merchandising), are promoted as senior vice presidents. Sales team head south Vijay Subramaniam is elevated as group account director, MTV – ad sales, west and south.
Narayan, who will head the finance function at MTV Network is a former Star News executive. Armed with a decade- long experience in all aspects of finance and accounting, Narayan was a part of the senior management team that launched Star News, says a company release.
Chowdhry joins the network after a stint with BBC World Service Trust. With over ten years of experience in media and programming, Chowdhry’s specific responsibility will be to create new local content for Nick, adds the release.
Mazgaonkar, former B4U head of sales, will take charge of Nick’s all India ad sales, as group account director. His previous experience includes stints with Cartoon Network and ESPN, among others.
While Oshidar is promoted as senior vice president, creative and content, Hiremath is elevated as senior vice president, network development, South Asia (licensing and merchandising).
MTV sales team South head, Subramaniam will be relocating to Mumbai as group account director, MTV – ad sales, West and South.
Announcing the new developments, MTV Networks India, managing director, Alex Kuruvilla said, “The backbone of MTV has always been it’s people. We have hired the best in the business and have promoted key people who have helped guide MTV to the number I position it enjoys today.”
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.
