News Broadcasting
CNBC-TV18 steals a march over the rest, this Union Budget with its remarkable marketing initiatives
MUMBAI: With an aim to stay ahead of other brands, CNBC-TV18, India’s leading business news platform conceptualized and executed a host of marketing initiatives communicated via Brand partnership, Outdoor innovation and Social media campaigns. Laying impetus on constantly innovating and evolving themselves to resonate with today’s well-informed audiences, the channel has not only grabbed the audience’s attention by offering them content that is authentic and comes with industry perspective, but have once again cemented their position as one of the most-reliable names/leaders in the business and finance sector.
One of their ground-breaking activities see them in a brand partnership with the hospitality chain Socials café, where they have ingeniously positioned CNBC-TV18 as the headquarters for the Union Budget. This activity sees them place swatch tags on the food tables across metros, with contextual messaging co-relating the Budget to eating out. Some of the messages read as “Understand how Budget 2020 will impact your restaurant bills” and “How will Budget 2020 will impact your social plans”.
The brand has put its best foot forward in their outdoor advertising campaigns as their OOH hoardings exemplify the brand’s ethos of always having something creative to offer. The innovative campaign has billboards based on icons. The icons indicating various products and services turned green (cheaper) and red (costlier) – alternatively ahead of the Budget building curiosity on the potential implication on the pricing of these goods/services.
In an attempt to connect with the millennial audience, the social media campaign was simple and direct to the point. With a creative message that defines how this Budget is expected to impact the consumer, the brand enlightens its viewers on its gravitas. The set of interesting creatives depicts that Union Budget commands your discretionary spends and lifestyle choices. One such creative simplifies the concept by comparing an international holiday to a local one.
Network18 English Business News Cluster CEO Basant Dhawan said, “In a bid to stay relevant to ever-evolving consumers, we have come up with these unique initiatives. Keeping consumers at the center of the Union Budget, we intend to help them understand the implications of the Union Budget in their daily lives. These initiatives will help re-emphasize CNBC-TV18 as India’s Budget Headquarters.”
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.
