News Broadcasting
News18 Network announces 2nd edition of rising india summit
MUMBAI: With the theme ‘Beyond Politics: Defining National Priorities’, News18, India’s largest news network, is coming up with the second edition of its marquee thought-leadership initiative-News18 Rising India Summit 2019. The event will be held in New Delhi on February 25 & 26 and the inaugural evening will be graced by the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi who will give the keynote address.
Avinash Kaul, COO, Network18 commented, “As the largest news network in the country not just in size and scale with 19 channels in 15 languages but also viewership, it's only fitting that a platform as large as Rising India is conceptualized by us. We are proud to continue from last year's success of Rising India Summit and this year being an election year presents an even bigger opportunity to us to initiate ideas and dialogues.”
The summit this year, held on a monumental scale, will bring together people of eminence and exceptional achievements, from various walks of life, to celebrate India’s successes and deliberate the future. The two-day summit will witness dignitaries such as BJP President Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Minister of Finance & Railways Piyush Goyal, Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkhari, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan and Union Minister Law and Justice and Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Priyanka Kaul, President – Marketing & Special Projects, Network18 added, “Taking this initiative a notch higher this year, we are looking forward to welcome renowned stalwarts and celebrities on a common platform. As a network, we cater to people across demographics, geography and socio-cultural regions. With an endeavor to imagine a collective future to greatness and further giving an edge to India’s rising stature, this platform will capture the thoughts and vision of those in the driving seat of various facets of progress. We believe that this summit will sow the intention and pen down the direction of taking India to another level of growth in the coming year.”
The mega-event will kick-start with ‘Two Mystics’ – Ramdev and Sadhguru, following which an array of union ministers will be sharing their views on the theme ‘Building India for the Future’. The second day of this grandeur summit will commence with the address by Home Minister Rajnath Singh speaking on his idea of ‘Rising India: The Challenges Within’. Taking the evening further to be more exciting, there will be a panel discussion with eight women influencers such as Supriya Sule, Maneka Gandhi, Meenakshi Lekhi, Shobha De and others pondering on the new gender equation. While luminaries from sports and Bollywood will also be gracing the event, the session on ‘Future of Rising India’ will witness participations from the young guns of the country namely, Sachin Pilot, Tejaswi Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Anurag Thakur, Nara Lokesh, Jitin Prasada and others.
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.
