News Broadcasting
NBDA delegation meets prime minister Narendra Modi
MUMBAI: The news broadcast industry has been complaining about its aches and pains in the face of shrinking ad revenues courtesy competition and the rise of digital for some time now. With a new dispensation in charge at the ministry of information broadcasting in the form of minister Ashwani Vaishnaw, and prime minister Narendra Modi at the helm of the country, a delegation from the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) led by its president, Rajat Sharma, called on the two leaders to share the industry’s woes with them.
The delegation informed Modi about the industry’s health broadcast, constraints, problems, and challenges faced in the era of digital revolution which was severely impacting and affecting the growth of the ‘news’ genre.
The other members of the delegation were News 24 chairperson-cum-managing director Anuradha Prasad Shukla, TV18 Broadcast managing director Rahul Joshi, TV Today Network vice-chairperson & managing director Kalli Purie Bhandal, ABP Network director Dhruba Mukherjee, Zee Media advisor Anil Kumar Malhotra, NDTV director Sanjay Pugalia, Eenadu Television director I. Venkat, Sun TV managing director R Mahesh Kumar, Bennet Coleman & CEO news broadcasting business COO Varun Kohli and NBDA secretary general Annie Joseph.
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.
