News Broadcasting
NBA and IBF to approach govt bodies regarding broadcasting woes
MUMBAI: The broadcasting industry of India has been facing several issues right from carriage fees to the imposition of the ad cap. In order to reduce the burden on the broadcasters, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) have now decided to unite and present their views to the highest authorities in India.
India TV chairman and editor in chief Rajat Sharma who is also the NBA president and the IBF vice president of strategic affairs, said that the two bodies will meet the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar to make them aware about the growing cancer called carriage fees. ”We will also show a revenue model that MSOs can adopt so that we don’t become dependent on carriage fees,” said Sharma.
Regarding ad cap he said that they will show the ministers the kind of revenue loss the channels will incur if the 10+2 minute ad cap is implemented. The case is currently being fought by the NBA in the Delhi High Court. “We will request for the 12 minute advertising cap to be removed from the licencing conditions,” he said. The NBA president added that no channel, be it a news channel or a GEC, wants to show more than five minutes of advertising but the revenue model forces them to do so. “None of us want to compromise on programming,” he said.
The new ratings system that will be applicable once BARC India starts its operations, should be transparent, he said. ”Till the time these issues are not addressed, the industry will keep suffering,” he opined.
While speaking to indiantelevision.com, Sharma said that the meeting is expected to happen in the next few days.
Sharma was addressing a keynote at the Seventh Indian News Television Summit, organised by indiantelevision.com where he discussed the role of a news channel and the challenges and hurdles that they face.
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.
