News Broadcasting
Samir Ahluwalia relieved from role of CEO content
MUMBAI: Zee Media is seeing a major reshuffling with several appointments, elevations and resignations. After the resignation of Dr. Subhash Chandra as director and non-executive chairman of the company, it is learnt that Zee Business’ Samir Ahluwalia has been relieved from his role as CEO content.
He was re-designated as the editor for Zee Business about a month ago soon after the news of Amish Devgan stepping down broke.
Ahluwalia has deep expertise in content and editorial understanding. His main focus was on increasing the channel’s stickiness with the viewers and in turn, increasing traction with advertisers. He has been a part of Zee News from the past 19 years and was elevated as the CEO content and VP (business) in 2014 of Zee Media.
Apart from this, Zee Media is planning to further continue with its strategy to promote the phalanx of on-air faces which includes Gaurav Agarwal, Mihir Bhatt and Virendra Kumar. And a new a gameplan is being drawn up to give its growth an impetus.
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.
