News Broadcasting
NDTV appoints Sachin Malhotra as National Revenue Head – Hindi Cluster
Seasoned sales leader takes charge as broadcaster sharpens its Hindi market push
New Delhi: NDTV has handed the revenue reins of its Hindi cluster to Sachin Malhotra, betting on a battle-hardened sales strategist to turbocharge growth in a fiercely contested ad market.
Malhotra steps in as national revenue head for the NDTV Hindi cluster after more than three years within the network, where he most recently served as north branch head. Before that, he led revenue as region head for NDTV 24×7, building advertiser relationships and regional heft.
A media veteran with nearly three decades in the business, Malhotra’s résumé cuts across some of India’s biggest media houses. At Bennett, Coleman & Co. (Times Group), he handled key accounts as general manager, shaping client partnerships in a brutally competitive phase for media sales. Earlier stints include senior leadership roles at The Walt Disney Company’s youth cluster and 9X Media, where he worked on expansion, brand positioning and new business pipelines.
Known as a sharp market-reader with a nose for opportunity, Malhotra has built a career on scaling revenues, opening categories and pushing sales teams to outpace targets. His elevation comes as Hindi news and entertainment channels wrestle for ad spends amid fragmenting audiences and digital disruption.
For NDTV, the play is clear: press harder on Hindi, deepen client ties and chase growth at speed. For Malhotra, it is another high-stakes innings in a long revenue marathon — and the scoreboard is already ticking.
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.
