News Broadcasting
Inspirational Indians Felicitated at SENIOR CITIZEN AWARDS
MUMBAI: In a first-of-a-kind initiative, CNN-IBN, in partnership with Paranjape Schemes Construction Limited, honoured 12 unsung senior citizens of India at the Senior Citizen Awards – The Unstoppables. At a glittering awards ceremony held at Taj Land’s End Hotel in Mumbai, Chief Guest Amitabh Bachchan felicitated the winners for their brave and inspirational endeavours.
These special awardees, well past their retirement age, have been working tirelessly to improve the lives of people around them, thereby making themselves valuable partners in India’s progress. The recipients of this award were as follows:
• Keepu Tsering Lepcha
• Girish Bharadwaj
• Manilal Dand
• Chandrasekhar Sankurathri
• Hirbaiben Ibrahimbhai Lobi
• Dr. Joyce Siromoni
• HS D’Lima
• Merzaban Patel
• Dr. Shantuben Patel
• Sindhutai Sapkal
• Tulasi Munda
• Anjina Rajagopal
The Senior Citizen Awards – The Unstoppables adhered to a process of selection which had the CNN-IBN Editorial Board at its core.
Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, CNN-IBN, IBN7 & IBN-Lokmat, shares his views about the awards, saying, “We are proud to bestow this honour on our senior citizens who work at the grassroots to uplift our society without looking for any kind of recognition in return. These citizens have withstood the odds of age and have zealously taken it upon themselves to pave way for a better future for the generations to come.”
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: 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.
