News Broadcasting
11 new proposals for uplink permission under process: Jaipal Reddy
NEW DELHI: As of date, 11 new proposals for unlinking from India are under process, the government informed Rajya Sabha on 19 July.
Information and broadcasting minister Jaipal Reddy informed Rajya Sabha that as per the applications, all the proposals involve 100 per cent India equity and that no time frame can be indicated as to when the cases would be finally disposed off by the government.
Interestingly, the updated list of channels seeking uplink permission do not include those from Zee Telefilms (for ZeeBiz, a proposed business news channel) and SAB TV, which has said in the recent past that it would launch a news channel around the last quarter this year.
This can mean two things: either the clearance has been obtained or the plans have been put in the backburner for the time being.
The ones which are seeking government clearance, according to information laid in Rajya Sabha, include Falak TV Ltd’s Falak and Al Hind TV, Twenty First Century News Room Productions Ltd’s CAT TV, Ekonkar TV Pvt. Ltd’s Ekonkar TV, Enter 10 TV Pvt. Ltd’s Enter 10 channel, Shalom Communication Pvt. Ltd’s Shalom TV, Senior Media Ltd’s Senior 1 TV and Telugu Cinema Entertainment Pvt. Ltd’s Telugu Cinema.
Meanwhile, in reply to another question, Reddy also told Rajya Sabha that Prasar Bharati (that manages Doordarshan and AIR) has no proposal to change the format and look of DD News.
“Prasar Bharati has informed that there is no such proposal to convert DD News into an entertainment channel as before,” Reddy informed parliament.
Incidentally, Prasar Bharati board also got a part-time member in RN Bisaria. A selection committee headed by the vice-president of India did the selection of Bisaria.
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.
