News Broadcasting
News18 India to telecast ‘Mahapoll’ ahead of assembly elections
Mumbai: As the polling dates for the upcoming assembly elections approach closer, political parties are driving their campaigns to the pinnacle in all poll-bound states including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand. News18 India will get a step ahead and telecast the biggest opinion poll ‘Mahapoll’ that will comprehensively analyse and decipher these poll results and give a better and clearer picture to the general public.
In the run-up to these polls, everyone is keen on the public and experts’ opinions to understand which way the tide is turning. Over the past few days, various opinion polls have been released making a forecast on the outcome of the elections. The ‘Mahapoll’ will be hosted by the channel’s renowned anchors Aman Chopra and Preeti Raghunandan and will have eminent political leaders and political commentators as panelists.
The ‘Mahapoll’ will also get telecast on News18 Uttar Pradesh/ Uttarakhand and News18 Punjab/ Haryana/ Himachal Pradesh on Friday, 7 p.m onwards.
News18 India, being the country’s leading Hindi news channel, aims to set the best foot forward in the run-up to the polls by tapping into the power of its comprehensive network of regional channels and reporters bringing insights from ground zero. The shows have been aligned up to the expectations of the viewers as more action is awaited in the poll-bound states.
Viewers can watch ‘Mahapoll’ on Friday from 8 p.m onwards only on News18 India.
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.
