News Broadcasting
Over Rs 330 crore spent on ads in first ten months of this year
NEW DELHI: The Government spent around Rs 332.24 crore on advertising in the period between 1 January and 31 October this year.
A sum of approximately Rs 288.67 crore was spent in the first ten months of this year on issuing display print media advertisements which usually carry the photographs of present and past political leaders/ministers/other dignitaries.
In addition, approximately Rs 41.11 crore was spent on electronic media advertisements and about Rs 11.46 crore on outdoor publicity respectively on advertisements which carried the photographs of political leaders; Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari informed the Parliament.
The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) is the nodal agency of the Government of India for advertising by various Ministries and Organisations of Government of India including Public Sector Undertakings and Autonomous Bodies.
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.
