News Broadcasting
Nick India GM and VP Hema Govindan resigns
MUMBAI: Nick India general manager and vice president Hema Govindan has put in her papers. An official release cites personal reasons as the reason for her departure from Nick after being at its helm for close to a year.
MTV Networks India managing director and MTV Networks Asia executive vice president Amit Jain said, “Within the short span of her tenure Hema has done a commendable job with Nick to put it on the right trajectory of growth path. Over the last eight months, Nick’s ratings have tripled and viewership has risen by over 30 per cent. More than anything else, she is leaving behind a team that is one of the most competitive teams in this space.”
“Nick is a priority brand for MTV Networks India and we will continue to invest substantially in this business to help it attain a leadership position in this country, as it has done across the rest of the world markets, where it occupies the no. 1 or no. 2 position in every territory.”
Govindan will continue in her current assignment till a replacement is finalised and in this period Jain would work closely with the Nick team to continue to pursue Nick’s growth objectives for the year.
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.
