News Broadcasting
Zee Media launches global English news channel Wion
MUMBAI: It is pretty significant that Zee TV group promoter Subhash Chandra used 15 August, India’s 70th Independence Day to launch Zee Media’s global English news channel World is One News (WION) on TV screens. Wion launched as a free to air satellite service in 37 countries and is available in India on Dish TV (#605), Reliance (#459), Tata Sky (#628), Siti – Mumbai (#419) Delhi (#419 ) Bangalore (#319) Indore (#419) Kolkata (#430) and on Den Supreme Mumbai (#371) Kolkata (#371).
Chandra has for long been advocating that the world needs to see south Asia, and more specifically India, through a pair of local unfiltered glasses, not colored by Western or any other perspective. He had announced last year that Zee Media would launch WION and had appointed a former CNN and CNBC journalist Rohit Gandhi to head the news channel as its editor in chief.
For the past couple of months, it has been putting out news on various online platforms, right from YouTube to Facebook and has been focused on presenting global news developments from a south Asian perspective.
Said Gandhi in an opinion piece on the Wion website announcing the launch today: “For decades, media has been pushing the agenda of a country or a group of countries. Primarily Western news outlets have occupied that space and they push their viewpoint. They try and come as close possible to an “unbiased” approach. But they are far removed from reality as they are unable to decipher the intricacies involved… The stories were myopic and many times their selection was biased. The only stories that made to the forefront were about poverty, manual scavenging or the monkeys. I knew that I couldn’t work in a myopic news environment; I had to tell the stories that were nuanced and looked at all sides of a society or societies. “
He added that WION will be “working to deliver an unbiased news network where people will be able to take pride in the phenomenal world that they live in and are able to learn from the successes and failures in general. As we launch the ‘World Is One News’ Network, we hope to share the stories and our journey with you.”
Zee Media has set up bureaus or hired journalists in the major regions including Europe, west Asia and the US.
The channel says it will also have a strong focus on participatory journalism from viewers. “We encourage people to submit their stories, photos, opinions, comments and videos,” says its website.
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.
