News Broadcasting
News channels set for action as EC announces poll dates
MUMBAI: Its show time for the news channels. The Election Commission (EC) today announced that elections in Madhya Pradesh, new state Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi will be held on 1 December.
Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh said at a press conference in New Delhi that Mizoram would go to polls on 20 November.
In Mizoram votes will be counted on 2 December and in the other states on 4 December, Lyngdoh said. The commission also decided to hold by-elections to three assembly seats in Bihar — Sitamarhi, Satwa, Barachapti — and two seats in Uttar Pradesh — Mahsi and Harora — on November 20.
It was with an eye to the upcoming state elections that the government (read the information & broadcasting ministry) worked overtime to get its DD News channel off the ground. As per the latest announcement, DD News, which got Cabinet clearance last Friday, will launch as a 24-hour news channel from 3 November.
Another major initiative impacted by the elections was the government’s plan to introduce the conditional access regime in the four metros. It was due to pressure from BJP leader Madan Lal Khurana that CAS was deferred in Delhi. The shelving of CAS in the capital paved the way for its deferment in Mumbai and Kolkata as well.
All the news channels have lined up special election programmes in the lead-up to the elections as well as the poll days. But the faces to watch will undoubtedly be NDTV’s Prannoy Roy and Vinod Dua, who recently shifted loyalties from Subrato Roy’s Sahara Samay to Star News.
Also Read:
Election coverage gets new face on Zee News
Vinod Dua to anchor ‘Kaun Banega Mukhyamantri’ on Star News
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.
