News Broadcasting
Viewers to decide CNBC-TV18’s top business icons
MUMBAI: Choosing an icon is never an easy task especially in a country like India where many have strived and done their bit to make the country proud.
Economic growth being utmost importance; over the last decades, India has witnessed a flurry of business thinkers turn into history makers, reinventing its economic growth. To salute them, CNBC-TV18, which is celebrating its 15 years, has launched an initiative called Indian Business Icons.
The endeavour is to form a league of the most powerful business icons that the people of the country think have had a monumental impact, not only on their lives, but also on the Indian economy.
The channel has unveiled the list of the top 30 business icons, arrived at by a robust editorial process. The list includes leaders such as Ratan Tata, Anand Mahindra, Kishore Biyani, Deep Kalra and Kiran Majumdar Shaw amongst others.
Asked upon how were the icons shortlisted, a channel spokesperson highlighted, “These names were shortlisted after an extensive process of going through leaders who have impacted Indian economy in the past 15 years. An eminent jury was drawn up that consisted of the top editorial faces at CNBC-TV18 such as Shereen Bhan (managing editor) and Senthil Chengalvarayan (editor in chief) amongst others.”
The initiative will let people have the power to vote for their own business icon, someone who has significantly changed lives, in the past decade and a half via missed calls, Facebook, Twitter and website voting.
The final list of the chosen 15 business icons will be selected on the basis of public voting, which will be audited by independent auditor Grant Thornton.
“We wanted the final list of 15 to be as close to the real truth as possible and decided that the final decision should lie with those who matter – the people of India. Each of these great men have not only impacted the economy at large but have also touched the lives of Indians in many ways. CNBC-TV18, for the first time in India, provided a platform for the public to decide, which leader according to them deserved to make the cut,” added the spokesperson.
To highlight these icons, the channel has created especially packaged short films (two to three minutes) on each of the nominations. These short films have been running on the channel for some time now. Each film looks at the key high points of the nominee’s contribution to the Indian economy in the past 15 years, hence, the reason for their nomination. “It allows our viewers to make a rational decision while voting. Apart from this, our top anchors discuss the dynamic voting results almost on a daily basis as it throws up interesting rankings,” added the spokesperson.
Additionally, an extensive on-air as well as off-air (digital, radio, print and social media) promotional campaign has been designed for the same.
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.
