News Broadcasting
Seventh News Television Awards gets a full house
NEW DELHI: The bright shining chandeliers that towered over the audience could not match the delight on the faces of the winners as they cheered for their team mates and channels at the seventh edition of indiantelevision.com’s News Television Awards. The gala evening held at The Lalit in New Delhi saw the who’s who of the News TV fraternity and the best of them took away the coveted trophy.
Awards being presented by noted personalities that included Communication advisor to the prime minister Pankaj Pachauri, national commission for minorities chairperson Wajahat Habibullah, fashion designer Ritu Kumar, former cricketer Ajay Jadeja, actor Parvin Dabbas, Padma Shri dancers Raja Reddy and Radha Reddy, Dabur chairman VC Burman, politician Subramanian Swamy, former Comptroller & Auditor General of India Vinod Rai, NDTV head honcho KVL Narayan Rao, cricketer Surinder Khanna, among many others.
Some of the big take aways for the gala night were NDTV 24X7 editor Barkha Dutt and NDTV India editor Ravish Kumar for best TV news anchors in English and Hindi respectively, Bloomberg TV editor Vivek Law as best business news anchor in English and CNN-IBN’s Suhasini Haidar as best TV news presenter in English.
Shows that won accolades included CNN-IBN’s India at 9 for best daily news bulletin in English and Dastak by Aaj Tak for the same in Hindi. CNBC TV 18’s India Business Hour was given the award of best business news programme in English while NDTV 24X7’s We the People won for best talk show in English.
Not to forget were the awards given away in the two regional categories as well- Telugu and Marathi. K Nagendar Sai from CVR news won best business news anchor in Telugu while K Padmini from TV9 was awarded for best entertainment news anchor in Telugu. Alka Dhupkar from IBN-Lokmat was recognized as the best TV news anchor in Marathi. V6 news from Andhra Pradesh won best channel packaging of the year and Zee 24 Taas’ show Rokhthok- Shradhecha Bhandwalachi Mujori won for best news debate in Marathi.
Apart from this, for the first time, recognitions were given to the ‘game changers’ of 2013 by indiantelevision.com group founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari, that included NDTV, Zee Media Corporation, Network 18 and India TV.
The evening saw around 500 guests – consisting of professionals from the TV news ecosystem – attend and cheer for the winners as they took away galores of prizes.
The ceremony was possible thanks to partners such as Jia News, News Nation, Akamai Technologies, India News, News X, Sakshi TV, TV9, CNBC Awaaz and CNBC TV18.
Click here for the complete list of winners
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: 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.
