News Broadcasting
Prakash Jha to launch news channel
MUMBAI: Filmmaker Prakash Jha is all set to launch his news and current affairs channel, Maurya TV, in Bihar.
To be based in Patna, the 24-hour, free-to-air channel will air in Bihari language. “This will be an infotainment channel and will cover everything related to Bollywood, politics, news and society,” reveals Jha.
According to Jha, the team for the setup is already in place and the process of chosing an individual to head day-to-day operations for the channel is currently in the final stages.
Manmohan Shetty will be an investor in Jha’s project.
The clearance of the channel was secured from the I&B Ministry a year ago and the channel in all probablity will start functioning two months from now, adds Jha.
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.
