News Broadcasting
Contract journalists in Kerala to get provident Fund
NEW DELHI: In a significant development that can have ripple effects in the media industry, contract journalists working for the New Indian Express in Kerala will become eligible to provident fund, unlike their counterparts in the rest of the country.
Regional PF Commissioner, Kochi, N.Gopalakrishnan has ordered that the journalists and non-journalist employees working on contract basis in Kochi unit of the New Indian Express are eligible for Provident Fund benefits.
In a 64-page verdict given after an enquiry undertaken as per the Provident Fund Act 1952, the PF Commissioner rejected the NIE management’s claim that the journalist and non-journalist’s of the NIE, Kochi are not employees and, hence, they are not entitled to EPF benefit.
The Commissioner found that they are very much employees of the NIE establishment and ordered the immediate assessment of EPF amount eligible for each and every employees working on contract at the NIE, Kochi.
This is a landmark victory for the New Indian Express Employees Association (Kerala), employees organisation of the New Indian Express in Kerala. The verdict would have far reaching consequences in the media industry in particular and trade union movement in general at a time when more and more people have been employed on contract basis by companies.
The New Indian Express Employees Association (Kerala), according to its President N Padmanabhan and GS Radhakrishnan, fought the case relentlessly for the last three years against heavy odds.
Meanwhile in Delhi, hundreds of mediaperons took part yesterday in a dharna at Jantar mantar in solidarity with Sakshi Journalists and press workers call for dharna.
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.
