News Broadcasting
NewsX ropes in Seema Mustafa
MUMBAI: Indi Media-owned English news channel NewsX has appointed senior journalist Seema Mustafa as the national affairs editor and head of the national bureau.
The channel has launched a weekly interview programme, Straight Talk With Seema Mustafa.
Prior to NewsX, she was working with The Asian Age as resident editor. In her career spanning over three decades, Mustafa has worked with The Telegraph, Indian Express, The Economic Times and The Patriot. Her weekly columns have been syndicated to several newspapers including The Deccan Chronicle and The Dawn of Pakistan.
NewsX co-promoter Jehangir S Pocha said, “Seema’s joining the NewsX team is another step in our re-building and strengthening the channel. Her experience and calibre will further allow us to give viewers the quality news and journalism they have come to expect from NewsX.”
Mustafa is one of the few women journalists to have reported extensively on armed conflicts. She has covered the Beirut war in 1982 between Israel and the PLO and more recently, the Lebanon-Israel war. She received “Prem Bhatia Award for Excellence in Political Reporting and Analysis” in 1999 for her coverage of the Kargil war.
“NewsX’s approach of bringing the depth and coverage of print journalism to electronic medium makes for an excellent television. It’s a vibrant and fresh news channel with a fine balance of young journalists and seasoned voices. It’ll be exciting experience working with a progressive and engaging news channel such as this,” Mustafa added.
Mustafa’s areas of interest are Kashmir, West Asia and Pakistan. She also writes on atomic energy and nuclear issues.
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.
