News Broadcasting
Slowdown halts Zee News Ltd’s expansion plans
MUMBAI: Television news broadcaster Zee News Ltd (ZNL) has halted its expansion plans due to a slowdown in the economy.
After demerging from Zee’s entertainment broadcasting business, ZNL had chalked out a plan for more channel launches after spending a year in consolidating its operations.
“Our focus last year was on consolidation. But for the slowdown, we would have expanded our bouquet this year,” said Zee News Ltd chief executive officer Barun Das in an interview with Indiantelevision.com.
News broadcasters will have to increase their fleet of channels if they have to scale up their revenues. “It is difficult for established existing channels to post ad revenue growth beyond 10 per cent. Expanding the bouquet and strengthening it is key to a TV news broadcaster’s growth strategy,” said Das.
ZNL is looking at launching regional news channels but an English general news channel is also on the cards. “It would preferably be regional news channels first but we have not ruled out an English news channel. It all depends on the fund position and the extent of the slowdown. When we are looking at growth, we can’t take the market for granted anymore,” averred Das.
ZNL is looking at posting a revenue of over Rs 3 billion this fiscal even as it forecasts a sluggish growth for the industry in the next two quarters. The company had reported a revenue of Rs 1.43 billion for the six-month period ended September 2011.
“The next two quarters are not going to be easy. But we expect to outgrow the market by at least 5 per cent,” said Das.
ZNL owns and operates seven channels including Zee News, Zee Business, Zee 24 Taas, Zee Punjabi, 24 Ghanta, Zee 24 Ghantalu and Zee News UP.
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.
