News Broadcasting
Vijay Koshy leaves ESS for AXN, Animax
MUMBAI: Sony has tapped Vijay Koshy to head its English channels AXN and Animax in India.
He has replaced Rohit Bhandari who earlier this year was promoted to the position of AXN director South Asia. Bhandari assumes this role on Monday in Singapore. Prior to joining AXN Koshy was in charge of ad sales at ESPN Star Sports.
Koshy reports to Sony executive VP (ad sales and revenue management) Rohit Gupta. Speaking on the appointment Gupta says, “Koshy has experience in handling niche brands like Channel (V). His experience with the sports genre will also come in useful. He is the right person to lead the business of AXN and Animax going forward.
“Rohit Bhandari has been with us for a long time. His initiatives went a long way towards helping AXN becoming the number three channel in the English genre.”
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.
