News Broadcasting
Zoom ropes in former Channel [V] hand Suresh Bala as COO
MUMBAI:The Times Group’s non-fiction entertainment and lifestyle channel Zoom has roped in a former Channel [V] programming professional Suresh Bala as its new chief operating officer.
With Suresh Bala coming in, the outgoing COO Upen Roop Rai has moved on to head Integrated Marketing Solutions Group (IMSG) and Indiatimes as the director, informs an official release.
Bala will report to Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd’s executive president Arun Arora. He is expected to take over his responsibilities within a week or two.
Prior to this, for the past three years, Bala was in Canada, and before that he was in the programming function of Channel [V].
Interestingly, Rai came from Times Group’s internet division where he was the marketing head. His last day as Zoom COO would be 1 June.
While, overseeing Zoom, Rai continued to handle Indiatimes.com in Delhi. He was completely responsible for revenue, marketing and sales. Integrated Marketing Solutions is also something he was handling.
Under Rai’s guidance, Zoom has added various franchisees to mark its positioning of an Indian lifestyle channel. Commenting on his move to IMSG and Indiatimes, Rai said, “The experience at Zoom has been a great one. I was sent here for a year and it has been a great year. I am already looking forward to my focus responsibilities at IMSG and Indiatimes.”
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.
