News Broadcasting
Zee News locks in on daytime viewers
NEW DELHI: Hindi news channels Zee News may not rank very high on the “media noise” quotient but that is not to say it is out of the reckoning in the ratings stakes.
Quoting recent TAM data, an official release claims that daytime viewers spent more time on Zee News than on its rivals (source TAM week ending 12 June, All India, TG C&S AB Male 25+, TB – 6 am to 5:59 p.m.). In terms of channel shares Zee News is ahead of NDTV, Star News and DD News, the release states.
Zee News’ coverage of planet Venus’ rare transit across the sun – Shukra Hai Suraj Hai, made it the first choice of the viewers with a leading channel share of 3.84, ahead of Aaj Tak (3.64,) Star News (2.7), NDTV India (1.94), Sahara Samay (1.04), DD News (.76) (source TAM 8 June, All India, C&S AB M 25+ TB – 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.), the release states.
As regards the venus transit, Zee News asserts leadership in time spends as well. Viewers spent 27 minutes on Zee News as against Star News’ 18 minutes, Aaj Tak’s 16 Minutes, NDTV India’s 13 Minutes and DD News’ 11 minutes. Zee News covered the Venus transit from a specially created studio, with reporting from across the country including the observatory in Nainital and from Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi and other regional centers, the release says.
Among the channel’s other big stories was anchor Ashok Singhal’s exclusive interview with former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee that led to a churning within the BJP. Zee News also claims to have had the lead on its rivals vis-a-vis its coverage of last week’s Matsyagandha Express rail tragedy.
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.
