News Broadcasting
Network18 partners Aquaguard to sensitize nation about water
MUMBAI: Network18, in partnership with Aquaguard, has initiated a national awareness water campaign. To create awareness and highlight the importance of water for both, urban and rural India, Jal Daan campaign is envisioned to sensitize viewers towards the importance of clean drinking water and the challenges the nation is facing on account of its scarcity.
The first episode of the campaign will be telecast on 25 September at 7:30 pm. It will introduce the viewers to the idea behind the campaign, and reveal how every Indian can be a part of it.
A panel of eminent personalities such as the medical expert from Mumbai Dr. Shriram Nene, St. Johns Medical College department of Biochemistry & Biophysics professor emeritus Dr. Thuppil Venkatesh, Bangalore Arghyam founder and chairperson Rohini Nilekani, ministry of drinking water and sanitation secretary Parameswaran Iyer and Water Air India chief executive V K Madhavan. The panelists will discuss the agenda behind the campaign, while deliberating on various aspects related to safe drinking water, reasons for its shortage and implementable solutions to eradicate this nationwide problem.
The episode will also feature individuals and associations that have done exemplary work to make clean drinking water accessible to the unserved and underprivileged in the society.
The initiative calls out to the entire nation to join the Jal Daan movement, by taking the pledge to donate five litres of healthy drinking water every day, to those who have limited or no access to it. For every pledge taken, Rs. 10 will be contributed towards building a corpus for the installation of 100 community water purification plants in urban and rural slums. The campaign intends to eradicate this nation-wide problem and make clean drinking water accessible to all.
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.
