News Broadcasting
Mumbai hopefuls shortlisted for Everest Se Takkar
MUMBAI: Five amateur mountaineers have been shortlisted from over 350 enthusiasts who turned up for the elimination rounds of the National Geographic’s Everest Se Takkar in Mumbai over the weekend.
Culled after a rigorous evaluation exercise, which included running, obstacle races, river rafting as well as a written interview and a gruelling psychological grilling, the five will join 15 others, selected from three other cities, in Delhi on 1 March and proceed to the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi, before embarking on the rigorous trek to the Everest base camp, 20,000 feet above sea level.
The Rs 110 million initiative, being undertaken in coordination with the Indian Army, is the first time that is being captured on a TV camera from start to finish. The cameras were in attendance even during the initial eliminations, when participants were required to speak a few words on film, and when they ran their course through the physical tests at the naval base in Colaba in southern Mumbai on Sunday.
The weekly telecasts of the Everest Se Takkar will begin from next week. The Everest initiative is the first time that National Geographic Channel will create local programming that is focused specifically on the Indian viewer. The channel will shoot the entire selection and training procedure and the final trudge to Everest.
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.
