News Broadcasting
Zee Media reports improved numbers for fiscal 2018
BENGALURU: The Essel group’s news arm, Zee Media Corporation Limited (ZMCL), reported higher revenue, and profit after tax for the year ended 31 March 2018 (FY 2018, year under review) as compared to the previous year FY 2017. ZMCL’s revenue from operations increased 25.9 percent in FY 2018 to Rs 587.40 crore from Rs 466.46 crore in FY 2017. ZMCL reported profit of Rs 27.84 crore in FY 2018 as compared to a loss of Rs 16.06 crore in FY 2017. ZMCL’s EBIDTA increased 14.2 percent to Rs 166.36 crore (28.8 percent margin on operating revenue) from Rs 145.71 crore (32.4 percent margin).
ZMCL’s advertising revenue for FY 2018 increased 29.2 percent to Rs 510.6 crore from Rs 395.25 crore in FY 2017. Subscription revenue reduced 0.9 percent in the year under review to Rs 47.49 crore from Rs 47.94 crore in the previous year. Other sales and services revenue more than tripled (grew 200.5 percent) in the year under review to Rs 19.92 crore from Rs 6.63 crore reported in FY 2017. It may be noted that revenue from ZMCL’s e-commerce business (ezmall.com) grew to Rs 4.53 crore in FY 2018.
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.
