News Broadcasting
NDTV launches India’s first mobile-only portrait live channel
MUMBAI: New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) has launched India’s first mobile-only vertical live channel with the name NDTV HOP Live. India has nearly 432 million internet users and this number is growing at a rate of 4-8 per cent, according to Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunication (TMT) prediction 2018- India edition. With the tremendous digital advances and ongoing smartphone revolution, NDTV HOP Live hopes to break the clutter of digital content and focuses on creating a young and energetic voice of the generation.
NDTV group CEO Suparna Singh said, "NDTV is valued and recognised for creating and launching terrific new content in the online space. This partnership with Airtel allows us to use to dream potential the possibilities of digital and telecom technology. "We know younger users want great content on the small screen. This is original, made-from-scratch content for them, not replicated or ported from our other platforms. It's very exciting to be rolling this out at this time in India."
The app has a mix of live shows and fast-paced features, it has ditched the horizontal view and has followed a more personal and focuses approach by adopting the vertical format. According to Counterpoint Research, a market research company, India will have more than a billion smartphone users in the next five years. The numbers of users will exceed 700 million by the year 2022.
Currently, India is the second largest smartphone industry in the world with more than 400 million active users, after China.
The app is available on Google Play store and IOS app store. It is also available exclusively on Airtel TV.
Commenting on the partnership, Bharti Airtel CEO – content and apps, Sameer Batra said, "We are delighted to join hands with NDTV to launch India's first LIVE channel for smartphones. Today's tech-savvy millennial wants to consume digital content on the go and our tie-up with NDTV is aimed at facilitating just that. Our deep understanding of customer's content consumption preferences coupled with NDTV's expertise is sure to create an enjoyable experience for users."
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.
