News channels gain steam as polls loom

Television news viewership that hit a record following the pandemic outbreak and plunged thereafter as normalcy resumed has begun to pick up again, at a time critical state and general elections are approaching.

- LataJha

At the beginning of the lockdown, the news category commanded nearly a fifth of overall TV viewership, thanks to lack of fresh content and viewers’ hunger for covid-related information, only to fall to nearly 4% as the economy opened up. However, its share has spurted further to 7.1%, latest data accessed by Mint showed.

Television monitoring agency BARC did not respond to a query to confirm the figures.