News Broadcasting
TV Today’s distribution head Amitabh Srivastava Disney bound
NEW DELHI: TV Today distribution and network development head Amitabh Srivastava has finally quit and is set to join Disney India.
According to TV Today sources, the company has accepted Srivastava’s resignation, which was sent last week.
Interestingly, Srivastava had put in his resignation earlier this year in February too but it was not accepted, following which, he had withdrawn the same.
The Aroon Purie-controlled TV Today is the parent company for news channel leader Aaj Tak and its English sibling, Headlines Today. Though TV Today sources confirmed the development, company’s official spokesperson was not available for comments. TV Today CEO G Krishnan too is said to be out of Delhi and was not available for a reaction.
Quizzed on the issue, Walt Disney Television International (India) head of marketing and communication Hema Govindan told indiantelevision.com, “We don’t comment on speculations.”
Though Disney India has got most of its senior executives in place now, a national distribution and network development head has not been announced yet. In a fragmented and complex cable TV market, which is witnessing action in the kids channel segment with several launches this year, Disney India would be needing an experienced and aggressive distribution head to gain momentum
Srivastava has worked in several media companies, including BBC World’s Indian operation. He was part of the core team at TV Today, which helped in launching first Aaj Tak and then Headlines Today.
Like last time, rumours about Srivastava’s departure had been doing the rounds of the industry from the date Disney launched two channels in India. He is likely to take up his fresh assignment sometime next month. At the moment, he is on a month’s notice period.
With Srivastava’s imminent departure — earlier this year he had, reportedly, negotiated with Rajat Sharma’s India TV too — TV Today seems to be experiencing a round of desertions as some other colleagues of his from the distribution team are said to have quit in the recent past.
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.
