News Broadcasting
Zee TV gets new president in media professional Apurva Purohit
Zee Telefilms group broadcasting CEO Sandeep Goyal is moving like quicksilver, at least as far as hiring of senior skilled professionals is concerned. Last week, he brought ex-Sony and MAK TV senior TV professional Prashant Sanwal on board to head the Alpha bouquet.
And 17 June saw the announcement of the hiring of media professional Apurva Purohit as president (business) of Zee TV, the flagship channel of the Zee Network. She is slated to take charge on 15 July and will be based at the Zee TV Chintamani Plaza Andheri (East) office in Mumbai. Purohit will be reporting to Goyal and will also have the responsibility of further consolidating the channel’s presence in international markets.
Purohit, a media director with FCB Ulka’s media unit Lodestar, put in her papers today. At Lodestar, she oversaw clients like Whirlpool, Amul, Tata Indica amongst others and was responsible for the Mumbai, Calcutta and Bangalore, operations of the agency.
“She’s a very bright professional with lots of ideas,” says Lodestar executive director Shashi Sinha. “She is very, very good with numbers. And this a big break for her. “
A management graduate from IIM Bangalore, Purohit has been in the advertising and media business for 15 years. Starting with client servicing, she crossed over to media planning in the mid-90’s.
“Apurva brings to our team a fine balance of media science, media interpretation and media innovation. She is a very fine-honed professional and we are sure she will contribute significantly to enhancing the franchise of Zee TV,” Sandeep Goyal was quoted as saying in a media release.
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.
