News Broadcasting
Prasar Bharati for KU band transmission in NE India
NEW DELHI: The Prasar Bharati Corp, overseeing the functioning of India’s pubcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio, has sought the government’s approval to start KU-band transmission for remote areas, starting with the north-eastern part of the country.
If this proposal is given the go-ahead, DD may well be the first one to start a DTH service in the country; though with a difference: the service will not be as costly as normal DTH services are round the globe.
According to officials in India’s information and broadcasting ministry, Prasar Bharati wants to start Ku-band transmission in N-E India to bring on to the television map remote areas of the country where normal terrestrial or cable TV services are unable to penetrate.
The officials pointed out that Prasar Bharati-government talks are on to see the feasibility of such a project as a major part of the funding is likely to come from the government.
Meanwhile, Prasar Bharati has started C-band cable transmissions in certain parts of N-E India in a bid to take DD and other private satellite channels to places where its terrestrial services are not available as also to counter cross-border propaganda by some neighbouring countries. Certain states and cities in N-E India are open to TV propaganda material from countries like China, Myanmar and Bhutan.
But the official was quick to point out that such a KU-band service should not be construed as a full-fledged DTH service.
At one time, Prasar Bharati was also in talks with the partly government owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and state-controlled Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, running telecom networks in Delhi and Mumbai, to jointly put together a proper DTH platform. But the talks did not make much headway owing to the huge investment that is needed for a DTH service and related infrastructure to man it.
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.
