News Broadcasting
NDA, Modi ahead of UPA if polls held now: ABP News-Nielsen Survey
NEW DELHI: According to the latest survey conducted by ABP News-Nieslen, if the Lok Sabha elections were to be held now, 40% respondents intend to vote for NDA and only 27% would vote for UPA.
These statistics observed from the respondents could be a major setback for PM Manmohan Singh as his performance has been rated below average; people in North zone have rated his performance even poorer.
Prime Minister’s performance is rated below UPA-II government’s performance.
BJP wins support (36%); higher in North (48%) and among youngsters (40%) and affluent (44% among SEC A).
Mixed response on UPA II performance; North zone and older generation (51+) are the unhappiest lot.
40% respondents feel that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is responsible for poor economic situation of the country. In south Zone 45% feel that it is Finance Minister – P. Chidambram who is responsible.
BJP emerges as a clear winner across all zones (more so in North and West zones) and gender. Major support is seen gained from younger lot (18-30 years). Congress, however, is neck and neck with BJP in the Southern zone.
Major fraction (42%) of people in North zone are unhappy with the performance of UPA-II. People in age group 51+ years seem to be least happy with UPA-II, and this could be the reason for increase in margin of votes (from 3% in favour of BJP in 2009 to 8% now in favour of BJP) for BJP and INC amongst 51+ years age group.
Across zone, gender and age people have rated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s performance slightly below UPA-II government’s performance.
At an overall level people are in support of Food security Bill and (48%) feel that it is a step in the right direction.
Modi leading the race for PM post
More than 60% have rated Narendra Modi’s performance as good/ very good; much higher among younger age group and affluent. His performance is rated much higher among people from Gujarat.
People feel that both INC and BJP are equally responsible for communalization of politics (29%)
Narendra Modi is leading the race (47%) for Prime Minister followed by Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. Modi is popular among voters form North, younger generation and affluents.
Gujarat’s Chief Minister has a strong support base not just in West Zone (70% rated his performance as ‘Very good’ or ‘Good’) but across other zones as well, with an overall mean score of 3.9
79% of respondents in Gujarat have rated Narendra Modi’s performance as ‘Very good’ or ‘Good’, with a mean score of 4.3
Across all zones except South, Narendra Modi emerges as the clear choice of the people for the position of Prime Minister of India. In South zone, it is neck and neck between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi.
Majority of the respondents all across feel that Narendra Modi should be BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections
In a scenario where it a competition between Priyanka Gandhi and Narendra Modi, BJP seems to be gaining more than Congress, even greater that it would have gained had it been some other candidate from Congress vs Modi, but we also observe no change in support base of Congress.
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.
