News Broadcasting
ZEE Hindustan Organizes Mega CM E-Conclave, Hindustan E-Vimarsh, Direct With CM
ZEE Hindustan, ZEE Media Corporation Ltd’s anchorless and multilingual national news channel conducted a nationwide E Conclave with 14 CMs of states, on 16th May 2020. Hindustan E-Vimarsh, Direct With CM, was a continuous telecast of 7-hour session with different state heads participating pan India.
The E Conclave was held just a day before Lockdown 3.0 ended. Almost 2 months into the lockdown, India has faced a new challenge. Protecting its people from Covid-19 and reviving the economy so that the livelihoods and dignity of our citizens can be restored. As India walks on this two-edged sword, ZEE Hindustan took the lead to organize an E Conclave with Heads of States so that our viewers may get a clear picture of the road to recovery.
Each individual CM session lasted for half an hour where the leaders put forward their strategy for the coming days and encouraged our viewers to stay strong. CMs who graced the session were: UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani, MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Sikkim CM Prem Singh Tamang, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, Manipur CM N Biren Singh, Himachal CM Jairam Thakur, Goa CM Pramod Sawant and Puducherry CM Velu Narayanasamy. The conclave cut across party differences showing the need of the hour.
Speaking on the occasion, ZMCL Cluster 2 CEO, Mr. Purushottam Vaishnava said, “As the lockdown keeps getting extended, people are getting restless. Unverified sources on social media are creating an atmosphere of ambiguity in the nation. As a responsible media company, we wanted to bring clarity amidst this chaos. Hindustan E-Vimarsh was thus conceptualized to bring our Heads of States straight to our viewer’s homes.”
ZEE 24 Ghanta, ZEE Rajasthan, ZEE Bihar Jharkhand, ZEE 24 Kalak and ZEE Odisha – the 5 regional news channels of ZMCL Cluster 2 also participated in the event by telecasting relevant CM sessions. Each of these channels is slated to have their own state-level E Vimarsh with respective cabinet ministers in the coming days.
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.
