News Broadcasting
TV Today’s digital strategy chief exits after one-year stint
MUMBAI: India Today group/ TV Today network announced today that Rudra Prasad Kasturi has stepped down from his role as chief strategy officer for digital business, precisely one year after joining the media conglomerate.
In a brief statement, the company confirmed it had accepted Kasturi’s resignation “to pursue other opportunities,” with his departure effective from close of business on 28 February.
Kasturi, a seasoned media executive with previous stints at The Times of India group and Times Internet, where he held various leadership positions, appears to be maintaining his tradition of brief but impactful tenures at India’s leading media houses.
Industry observers note that Kasturi’s CV now sports an impressively symmetrical one-year stint at India Today, neatly matching his seven-month escapade as chief growth officer at Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. Perhaps in the fast-paced world of digital media strategy, longevity is measured in months rather than years.
The company has not yet announced a successor.
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.
