News Broadcasting
Roopa Das heads new programing cell at Creative Eye
The Dheeraj Kumar-promoted production house Creative Eye has recently created a new programming cell headed by Roopa Das, former senior executive producer of Sony Entertainment Television.
Das was one of a large number of executives at different levels who quit Sony to join the Manoranjan Aur Kya (MAK) Network, which never got off the ground. She has been appointed as vice-president, programming at CEL. The company has announced that will be inducting more professionals shortly in the newly constituted programming cell. Among those who have already been inducted is Mahesh Badal, who has earlier worked with CMM and STV Enterprises.
The cell has already started working on various genres of programmes including social, suspense thriller, comedy sitcom, an official release states. CEL has commenced the shooting of three new programmes. CEL plans to produce at least six new programmes with the active association of its newly formed programming cell for Doordarshan and satellite channels during the third quarter of 2002-03.
The company, which was one of the major content providers to Doordarshan earlier, but had shifted its focus to satellite TV over the last year due to high telecast fees, has now decided to supply more content to DD again. Creative Eye also recently announced its intent to produce three Hindi feature films in the current fiscal. The company has so far produced more than 1,700 hours of programming that includes social, suspense thrillers, historical and mythological programmes. According to an official release, the current eight hours of programming per week on Doordarshan will be increased to 16 hours in 2002-03.
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.
