News Broadcasting
ABP news & Hindustan gear up for upcoming action in Hindi belt
MUMBAI: What happens when two giants of Hindi news come together….What happens when the face of Hindi television news joins hands with the face of Hindi print media. What happens when this amalgamation happens in the Hindi heartland of UP and Bihar? The Political environment heats up further in the Cow belt where Bihar is going into elections from next month, while UP perpetually continues to be a high stake state given its size and place in Indian politics.
Two most credible names in Hindi News, ABP NEWS and HINDUSTAN have come together to raise questions in the states of UP and BIHAR with their programmes, ABP News KAUN BANEGA MUKHYAMANTRI (KBM) and HINDUSTAN’s HINDUSTAN SHIKHAR SAMAGAM.
ABP News Kaun Banega Mukhyamantri is the Highest Election Recall Programme in the country with the highest viewership. KBM aims at giving all the viewers holistic information about the state elections including various offerings like debates from various constituencies, opinion polls, exit polls, polling & counting day special etc. The programme will also have consumer connect with voters through on-ground activation in multiple cities, mini polls etc.
The Hindustan Shikhar Samagam is set to convene on September 26th in Lucknow with its theme– Hindustan ki tarakki ka naya daur. This platform will have more than 300 distinguished guests from Politics, Bureaucracy, Industry, Public Life, Sports, Academia and Entertainment world. The galaxy of speakers include Akhilesh Yadav, Raj Nath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, Virendra Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rajeev Shukla, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Kangana Ranaut, Irrfan Khan and Amish Tripathi.
Going beyond the regular tie ups of news organisations, this is one of the biggest CONTENT and MARKETING tie up in recent times. A multi-media campaign consisting of TV, Print, outdoor and digital platforms will take this tie up to new levels. Hindustan’s property, Hindustan Shikhar Samagam will be telecast Live on ABP news channel with some of its mainstream anchors like Dibang, Kishor Ajwani and Abhisar Sharma hosting a few sessions. The Samagam will be available Live through video streaming on www.livehindustan.com as well as on www.abplive.in , the digital platform of ABP News Network.
Hindustan will be the official print partner for KBM where one editorial representative from Hindustan will be part of the ABP News panel for all public debates, opinion polls, exit polls, counting day coverage and all election related analysis and the content will get leveraged in their Bihar edition. Hindustan will also have the first right of information for polls results over others.
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.
