News Broadcasting
Zee takes stake in Aplab
Zee Telefilms has made another big move to consolidate its position of strength in the convergence business. The company is picking up a 26 per cent stake in Mumbai-based Aplab Ltd, a hardware business company which uses software technologies.
The stake is picked up through preferential allotment of 1.32 million fully paid-up equity shares by Aplab at Rs 90 per share aggregating to Rs 11.7 crore. Zee Telefilms Ltd President-corporate Rajesh Jain said that the main objective of acquiring the stake in Aplab was to get synergies from the various products to broaden the cable network business.
Siti cable, a subsidiary of Zee Telefilms is expected to be the main beneficiary of this acquisition by deriving synergies through hardware and software technologies of Aplab and the enhancement of broadcast media through its cable networks with the help of Aplab’s advanced hardware products like smart-card applications, set-top boxes, etc.
This will be a major plus for Zee and Siti cable which is aiming to be a big player at the national level.
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.
