News Broadcasting
Virender Sehwag starts new innings with India TV’s sports show
MUMBAI: Virender Sehwag is all set to start a new innings with India TV’s sports show Cricket Ki Baat will now have him on its expert panel.
Known to be an ultra-aggressive batsman throughout his illustrious cricketing career, Sehwag has created a similar image for himself off-the-field too. This image is to do with his happy-go-lucky style of cricket commentary and carefree tweets those often create flutter amongst the Twitterati.
A visually ecstatic Sehwag on beginning of his new innings stated, “I am delighted to associate with India TV as cricket expert. It is everyone’s dream to work for the channel that is led foremost news personality Rajat Sharma.”
“I have always strived to further India’s pride through my cricket and this wasn’t possible without my fans. I am sure that I will be able to present my viewpoint on the nitty-gritties of the game to each of my fan with utmost honesty. I hope that my innings with India TV will prove to be a very successful and a memorable one,” he added.
India TV MD Ritu Dhawan said, “We look forward to the fireworks the man is packaged with. We can’t be surer that with him on the panel, we have done the best possible job for our discerning audiences in terms of providing them with lively cricketing opinions.”
The team behind the show Cricket Ki Baat is very upbeat with Sehwag’s entry on the expert panel and has lined up a flurry of specials with the legendry Cricketer, few of these are expected to be first of its kind on the News Television.
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.
