News Broadcasting
TV Today Network elevates Aroon and Kalli Purie
MUMBAI: TV Today Network has elevated Kalli Purie from her current designation of Vice Chairperson. She has been given additional responsibility of Managing Director and Chairperson for the company for a period of five years starting from the next financial year, i.e., 1 April. The board has also re-designated Aroon Purie as the new Chairman and Whole Time Director for the same term.
Kalli Purie will be taking the seat of Aroon Purie in the new position shifts. The appointments are board approved and are subject to the approval of shareholders now.
In October, India Today Group Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie had handed over the baton of the media group to Kalli Purie who was serving as the Group Editorial Director (Broadcast & New Media) of the India Today Group and was then made Vice-Chairperson of the group.
TV Today houses the TV broadcasting and FM radio business in addition to Mail Today.
The India Today Group has properties spanning TV, print and digital including news channels Aaj Tak and Headlines Today. Living Media is the parent company of the group and the promoter group in TV Today Network. It has more than 24 magazines including editions of leading international titles. Through its multiple media brands and platforms, the India Today group reaches more than 225 million people every month.
Under the new structure, the Group CFO, Group CEO and all the heads will report to Kalli. However, the Group Editorial Director (Publishing) and Group CFO also have a dotted line reporting to the chairman.
In an internal email to employees, Aroon Purie had said that he wants to spend time on the strategic steering of the group and exploring new opportunities. He has been at the helm of the India Today Group for 42 years and has been involved in its day to day operations.
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.
