News Broadcasting
News broadcasters are all revved up for Union Budget 2016
MUMBAI: The Railway Budget was successfully announced by the railway minister Suresh Prabhu, and the fourth pillar of democracy i.e. the press, made justice by covering the entire highlights in detail of the allotment to its viewers. The people are anticipating the same coverage by the media with the announcement of the Union Budget which is right around the corner. The finance minister Arun Jaitley will announce the budget on 29 February 2016.
With the increase in the number of the channels and the growing competition, the news channels need to focus on various factors to have an upper hand over the others. While, some channels take up on-ground activities to interact with the lehman, some get an esteemed panellist on board to discuss the budget while a few resort to get analysts with a special programming line-up.
In this brawl, the viewers are left baffled with which channel to be watched and followed for a better insight on the budget. Taking a hint from this, Indiantelevision.com did a quick round-about of how the channels are going to cover the Union Budget 2016.
Read on:
Abp news will air a budget special show titledDesh Ka Budget anchored by Kishore Ajwani. ABP News will analyse the budget with FICCI and CII representatives along with political and economy critique.
Culminating with the Budget announcement, CNBC-TV18 will present a host of special shows, led by India’s most experienced business editorial team that will focus on key aspects of the Government’s fiscal policy. The Channel will speak to the most influential names of Markets & India Inc., to understand their expectations from the Budget. The channel will present a number of special shows to understand the country’s expectations from the Budget.
The channel will air Budget Caravan traversing the length and breadth of the country and will travel to the growth centres of India, to get a sense of the big expectations, straight from the shop floor and give viewers an economic health check of the nation, with this special series.
What’s Ailing Rural India will see reporters travelling to the smallest pockets of the nation to understand the rural nerve of the country. With the aim to find an answer to how will the budget impact the rural population of the country and what are their key needs?
The other show that will be broadcasted on the channel is Budget Hangout which will feature the young business community and professionals of India; we speak to the young CMOs and CEOs of leading corporate names in India. In a refreshingly new format, team CNBC-TV18 chats with these young icons on their expectations from the budget.
CNN-IBN and IBN7 will bring rolling coverage on union budget on 29 February 2016 under the umbrella of the special shows The Booster Budget on CNN-IBN and Budget Waale Babu Meri Income Bada Do! on IBN7.
The shows will be a culmination of a series of pre-budget shows through which both the channels have been capturing the mood, expectations and suggestions of different sections of the society. The network has lined up an extensive live programming to cater to the viewers with all they need to know about the upcoming budget.
On the general budget day, the channels will have leading economists and industry leaders including the former finance secretary CM Vasudev, executive director India foundation and MD Zeus Caps Shaurya Doval, BIMTECH director Dr. Harivansh Chaturvedi, LocalCircles.com chief strategy officer K Yatish Rajawat and Gaursons MD Manoj Gaur for IBN7 and National Institute of Public Finance and Policy professor Dr. Ila Patnaik (Professor, Swarajya economist, journalist and editorial director R Jaganathan, author and historian Patrick French, Mercury Travels executive VP Ashwini Kakkar, Government of India former chief economic advisor Dr. Arvind Virmani and Shell India executive chairman and Brookings India former chairman Vikram Mehta for CNN-IBN.
Media experts from around the country will also be seen with the CNBC¬TV18 budget editors. Traders will be guided by technical analysts lead by Ashwani Gujral, Sudarshan Sukhani, Prakash Gaba and Rajat Bose. While the fundamental impact of the budget on individual stocks will be analysed by S P Tulsian, Prakash Diwan and Ambareesh Baleega.
The channel has dedicated the entire day to cover the Union Budget 2016. Starting from 7 am, the channel will air Time Is Now stretching up till 11 pm followed by the finance minister’s speech going on till 1:30 pm. A second part of the show Time Is Now will begin from 1:30 to 4:30.
Going further, the viewers can tune into ET NOW Budget Trades till 5 pm followed by a third segment of Time Is Now till 6:30.
The channel will then broadcast a 30 minute exclusive Tax Effect from 6:30 to 7 pm. Investors Guide Budget Special will be aired from 7:30 pm to 8 pm followed by Markets & Macros will begin from 8 pm extending to 9 pm.
The channel will be seen debating on the budget with esteemed panelists in The Budget Debate from 9 pm to 10 pm. ET NOW Budget Trades’ will follow till 10:30 pm. Thye Budget Debate will air from 10:30 pm to 11:30 pm. The channel will air its last for the day with Markets & Macros till 12 am.
To get a clear picture about the budget this year, IBN-Lokmat is already airing Apeksha Budgetcha for exclusive coverage and discussion on the past promises & future expectations of the Union budget.
The channel will also air budget special show titled Lokmanch, deciphering last year’s budget fulfilment, fund allocation to the state, its utilization and more. The channel will have interviews and discussion special shows talking about the developmental need in agro industries, infrastructure & cooperative sectors. IBN Lokmat will also have an exclusive show with renowned economist Dr. Narendra Jadhav on 27 February at 8 pm.
On the budget day, the channel will have a dedicated budget special telecast starting from 9 am covering the finance minister’s live speech and an expert panel with eminent personalities from various industries & social segments, discussing the budget and its effect on the Indian economy.
The channel will decode the budget with Rajat Sharma in the show Namo Budget 2016 from 10 am.
Budget Buzz will begin on the channel at 8 am with Shweta Rajpal Kohli and Vikram Chandra as they ask what does the highly anticipated budget mean for industry and the people of India?
Following that will be a live budget speech with Prannoy Roy with CEOs, analysts and the aam aadmi for their reactions to the Budget at 11 am. At 7 pm Manisha Natarajan will look at the tax implications with a panel of tax experts. Budget Buzz 2016 ends with a full analysis of the budget with Prannoy Roy and a panel of expert analysts from 8- 10 pm
NDTV Profit’s Budget Buzz has a full day of programming starting at 8 am with Prashant Nair and Manvi Sinha Dhillon with guest experts. Watch full in-depth discussions of highlights post the live Budget speech with market and expert analysts.
India Ka Budget will begin at 10 am with Ravish Kumar and Aunindyo Chakratvarty with guests as they anticipate what changes the Budget will bring and give us analyses of highlights following the live budget presentation by the finance minister.
The evening programming will highlight what the budget means as Ravish discusses significant budget points with his guests on primetime at 9 pm.
The channel will air Budget Debate with Arnab Goswami with a panel of experts debating if the government has delivered on its reform promise. The panelists include Sanjeev Sanyal, Sandeep Gurumurthi, Omkar Goswami, Nalin Kohli, Pavan Varma, Rashesh Shah and Dr. Rajeev Kumar. The debate will happen on 28 February 2016 at 1 pm and a repeat at 9 pm.
*The channels are arranged in an ascending order
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.
