News Broadcasting
Sahara plans $5 million stage production in Israel
MUMBAI: The Sahara India Group is joining forces with an Israeli firm for a stage production. The company is co-producing the $5 million initiative that would make its debut at the Israel festival 2005. The show will be staged at various venues across the world.
Advocate Gashash Deshe (the son of the late producer Pashanel) who heads the Israeli firm will produce the show themed An International Tribute to India.
The launch of the collaboration was recently celebrated at a reception held by India’s ambassador to Israel.
The Sahara venture is seen as part of the company’s collaboration plans with Israeli companies. A company official is quoted in media reports as hinting at the opening of an interest office in Israel.
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.
