News Broadcasting
NDTV’s Chaubey to head Broadcast News political bureau
MUMBAI: Broadcast News, the newly-floated television company by Television Eighteen Ltd in association with Rajdeep Sardesai and Sameer Manchanda, has managed to lure away one of the key editorial professionals from the NDTV team, even as other journalists are expected to join the new entrant in the English news channel space.
NDTV senior special correspondent Bhupendra Chaubey will be hopping on board Broadcast News as chief political correspondent, heading the political bureau. He will be designing and presenting special political programmes. He had a five year long stint at NDTV. Before joining NDTV, Chaubey dabbled in documentary film making.
Others who are scheduled to join Broadcast News from NDTV include, anchor-cum-correspondent Anubha Bhonsle, business correspondents Sandeep Banerjee and Arijit Burman.
According to broadcast industry sources, the four of them have put in their papers at NDTV. Additionally, senior correspondent Suman Chakraborty is also likely to make a trek to Broadcast News.
As Broadcast News editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sradesai has time and again said, the proposed news venture’s high point would be political news. Insiders say the slant is likely to be on views.
Though the name of the first channel from Broadcast News stable is yet to be finalised, a source close to the development said Indian Broadcast News or IBN is a name being toyed with.
Broadcast News is a venture that was set up earlier this year with TV 18 holding 74 per cent equity stake, while the remaining 26 per cent is distributed amongst senior people. The Raghav Bahl-promoted television Eighteen has announced that it plans to raise $50 million from international market for expansion and new products.
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.
