News Broadcasting
Network18 launches India’s local news portal www.News18.com
MUMBAI: News from India goes deeply local in the latest online news website from Network18: News18.com. India’s first web, mobile and tablet service to focus on news at the state and city level, News18.com was launched on January 26.
Available on the web, on mobile phones and tablets, and as downloadable apps for iOS and Android devices, News18.com currently covers seven states: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. It will expand to the remaining states of the country over the next 18 months.
News18.com draws on the unparallelled local news-gathering expertise of the ETV network of news channels, whose Hindi services cover these seven states. The deep reach of ETV News into every corner of these states generates a rich and unique stream of news, updated by the minute.
People can now follow all of these news reports, in the form of engaging video clips, instant updates, and snappy text stories, on News18.com. Local news will break fast – and first - on News18.com, and in-depth coverage of local developments and issues will keep users fully informed about their home state and city.
Highlighting the importance of local news, Lakshmi Narasimhan CEO, Web18 said, “News18 is a completely fresh approach to covering news online. With Internet penetration and smartphones users galloping in tier 2 & 3 towns, it is important to provide a convenient platform to consume news. This is the information century, with content consumption at an all time high. For somebody living in Bihar or Rajasthan it is no longer sufficient to simply know what is happening in Delhi. News18 brings you closer to your world and gets you news that truly matters to you.”
Arunava Sinha, Head, IBNLive.com & News18.com is confident that readers will enjoy the interactive user-experience of the site. “News18.com will give readers a totally fresh and unique content experience. Watching live TV on the mobile and on the dektop, keeping track of the latest developments through live tickers and smart app alerts, sharing the news of one’s choice with friends on Facebook and Twitter – users will be able to do it all.”
By taking local news beyond its borders and making it available everywhere, News18.com turns the local into the national and international. And with its availability of computers, tablets and mobiles – the first online news offering from India to be available on all three devices from day one – it brings local news within easy reach of people wherever they are.
The Network18 Group is a media and entertainment company with interests in television, Internet, films, e-commerce, magazines, mobile content and allied businesses. Through its subsidiary ‘TV18 Broadcast Ltd.’ [BSE: 532800, NSE: TV18BRDCST], the group operates news channels - CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNBC-TV18 Prime HD, CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBN-Lokmat (a Marathi regional news channel in partnership with the Lokmat group). TV18 also operates a joint venture with Viacom, called Viacom18, which houses a portfolio of popular entertainment channels – Colors, Colors HD, MTV, Comedy Central, Vh1, Nick, Sonic, Nick Jr./Teen Nick and Viacom18 Motion Pictures, the group’s filmed entertainment business.
TV18 has also forayed into the Indian factual entertainment space through A+E Networks | TV18 (a joint venture between A+E Networks and TV18 Broadcast) and operates HistoryTV18. TV18 and Viacom18 have also formed a strategic joint venture called IndiaCast, a multi-platform ‘content asset monetization’ entity that drives domestic and international channel distribution, placement services and content syndication for the bouquet of channels from TV18, Viacom18 and other broadcasters. Through ‘Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.’ [BSE: 532798, NSE: Network18], the group operates its digital, publishing and e-commerce assets including moneycontrol.com, ibnlive.com, in.com and firstpost.com.
‘Network18’ also operates e-commerce properties like HomeShop18 and bookmyshow.com and publishes Forbes India, the nation’s first local edition of a foreign news magazine title, in collaboration with Forbes Media. In addition, through ‘Network18’, the group operates Network18 Publishing, a player in the special interest publishing space. ‘Network18’ has investments in Yatra, Stargaze and other Capital18 portfolio companies.
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.
