News Broadcasting
CNBC -TV18 stays above the competition based on Union Budget announcement
MUMBAI: CNBC -TV18 is once again a clear winner and the undisputed leader in English business news channels’ coverage on the day of Union Budget announcement. Not only was the channel far ahead of other English business news channels but was also more than 1.5 times of ET Now and Times Now put together in the Budget week* thereby consolidating its position as the distinct leader in budget analysis for English news viewing audience in the country. Since inception, CNBC-TV18 has been a leader despite competition coming in during the last few years.
Here’s what the share of channels looks like:
1.Budget Day (29 Feb’16): All India, CNBC-TV18 was number 1 with 75 per cent share which was thrice of all the competition put together. ET Now was at 21 per cent, NDTV Profit at 2 per cent and Bloomberg TV had 2 per cent viewership.
2.Budget Speech: All India, CNBC-TV18 was number 1 with 72 per cent share.ET Now was at 25 per cent, NDTV Profit at 3 per cent and Bloomberg TV had no viewership.
3.Budget Week (27t Feb – 4t March’16): In urban India CNBC-TV18 was leading at 71 per cent, more than twice of all the competition put together. The share of nearest competitor ET Now was 23 percent.
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.
