News Broadcasting
Telecast blacked out even as Telangana formation gets Lok Sabha clearance
NEW DELHI: And suddenly the screens went dark at 3:03 pm. Yesterday’s black out of the telecast of the Lok Sabha proceedings on the passage of the Andhra Paradesh Reorganisation Bill 2014 has opened a hornet’s nest politically. The allegation is that democratic norms have been dustbinned and the Congress (I)-led UPA government’s move is reminiscent of the Emergency days of 1975 when the nation’s media was put on a leash and muzzled.
There was no clarity at the time of writing on who took the decision to black out the telecast of vote by voice of the controversial bill – which envisages the creation of the 29th Indian state of Telangana – from the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. Early reports were that the speaker of the Lok Sabha Meira Kumar ordered the switching off of the cameras and the transmission. But the speaker was silent on this issue. What muddied the waters further was a statement later in the evening by the Lok Sabha secretary general S. Bal Shekar that the switchoff happened on account of a technical glitch and that an investigation had been ordered.
Lok Sabha TV put out a message that the telecast would resume, which did not come to pass. TV news channels – which normally carry LS TV signals – instead chose to carry the proceedings in parliament on their tickers.
Almost every political party lambasted the disruption of the telecast. Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj called it a tactical glitch, even as TMC leader Mamta Banerjee said it smelled of hanky-panky. Telangana opponents called it the death of democracy.
But Telangana leaders said that the blackout was necessitated to prevent the unruly protests which have marred the proceedings over the past few days, and they did not want them to be retelecast worldwide as they were when pepper spray rained on members of parliament and knives were flashed on 13 February. Additionally, they stated that the Andhra Pradesh media are known to be sensationalist and that the footage could have been misused by the close to 20-odd Telugu news channels, which could have led to law and order problems there.
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.
