News Broadcasting
News18 Network with most accurate results on Gujarat and HP elections
MUMBAI: As the nation awaited the outcome of the closely fought contest between the leading political parties in Gujarat and HP assembly elections, India’s news network – News18 Network, once again, proved to be the leader with the fastest and most accurate results. The channels left no stone unturned in bringing the most comprehensive counting day coverage with minute-by-minute updatesthroughout the day.
With extensive reportage, CNN-News18 was the first to call elections in both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. CNN-News18 not only kept a close track of the results but also apprised the viewers of the implications of the outcome with incisive analysis in the form of key takeaways.
News18 India and ETV News Network, News18 Network’s Hindi and regional channels,made the counting day coverage and analysis far more comprehensible for the viewers. While ETV News Network was the leader in reporting results, News18 India focussed on ensuring the accuracy of results being shared and led the genre for this data.
Keeping up with their legacy of leadership and expertise in covering elections, the network’s team of anchors, correspondents, experts and analysts offered an unparalleled coverage of these crucial elections.
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.
