News Broadcasting
Times Network’s property news channel MagicBricks Now to beam from 1 November
NEW DELHI: MagicBricks Now, a new real estate and property channel from the Times Group, was today formally launched by Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who said television channels should learn to differentiate between news and views so that the people could discern the real situation themselves.
The Minister said he was happy to know that Times Network is launching a news channel to create a platform for the real estate and housing sector “because it is going to partner with me in our plans to provide housing for everyone by 2032.” He said that the aim of the government was housing for all and smart cities and around Rs 4 lakh crore had been set aside for this.
Initially slated to be called Property Now, the channel was re-christened as MagicBricks Now and will begin beaming from 1 November.
The prime sponsor is the real estate website MagicBricks.com.which is a Times Internet property. Other confirmed sponsors include Lotus Greens Developers, Hirannadani and Mantri Developers.
Magicbricks Now will be distributed across all direct to home (DTH) and cable platforms and is already present on all platforms, which carry the Times Network’s channels. However, it will not be available on DD’s Freedish as it is a pay channel.
Times Group MD and CEO M K Anand told Indiantelevision.com that research had been carried out in six cities before the channel was launched. The research group had talked to thousands of people who wanted to buy property but were confused about how they could get the money and cross various bureaucratic or other hurdles.
Anand said that it had been found in the research that there were two types of people who wanted to buy property. One was the investor who was clearly looking at only buying to sell when prices rose, and the other was the layman who wanted to either buy property for personal stay or buy a second property to earn some income through rent.
He said both these categories of buyers had diametrically opposite ways of behaviour and the aim would be to bring the two together.
Speaking at a press meet later, Anand expressed confidence that the channel will break even in four to five years. He said the ad base in the country was around 40 per cent, of which the Times Group had a significant share.
Terming MagicBricks Now as a ‘property cousin’ of business channels, he added it was a real estate rather than a media endeavour.
In answer to a question, he said that most people felt recession was the best time to buy property and investments were made only with a futuristic profit in view. “If the media gives correct and real analysis, people will come forward to put money in property,” he added. The aim was also to facilitate an understanding of the processes of the government with regards to property.
The 24×7 channel will target NCCS A and B viewers in the 25-37 and 38-50 years age groups. In viewer profile terms, it will target both consumers who are looking to buy, sell or rent real estate, and businesses and service providers like brokers, builders, interior decorators, paint companies and others.
MagicBricks Now editor Faye D’Souza added, “It has been found that most people were confused about laws relating to property and real estate and the effort would be to declutter the various laws so the common man understands how he can go about purchasing the property.”
D’Souza informed that the channel would be multilingual so that it could reach all viewers.
MagicBricks Now will be using the prime time band of 7.30 pm to 10.30 pm to reach out to the common buyer. The channel will also have separate weekend programming, including live programmes where people could ask questions from experts in the studio. “the channel will have around two hours of live shows every weekend,” D’Souza added.
The channel will have shows on Vaastu and décor, etc, along with feature shows including some from the overseas market.
“MagicBricks Now has a singular focus – on the end consumer. It will offer a rich array of programs that range from news bulletins to property hotlines, debates, leadership insights and more. These will not just keep the end consumer informed, but will serve as a common meeting ground for knowledge-driven individual buyers, sellers and businesses looking seriously at the world of property and real estate,” she said.
Marquee channel programming includes The Property Guide, The Home Buyer’s Guide, Property Hotline, The Interiors Show, The Vastu Show, Real Estate Tycoons and, of course, The News, every hour on the hour.
Speaking about the association with Times Network to create the new channel, Magicbricks.com CEO Sudhir Pai said, “Magicbricks is delighted to be a part of this initiative with the Times Network. Our endeavour has always been to make our brand ubiquitous across media so as to provide consumers with rich and in-depth information when it comes to matters of property. With this association we leverage the visual appeal of television to communicate our rich data and analytics in an easy-to-consume manner for the consumer. With this launch, we strengthen the offering and make ourselves available at every touch point to consumers.”
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.
