News Broadcasting
UK’s ITC for ’16-QAM’ in DTT transmission
LONDON: Britain’s Independent Television Commission (ITC) yesterday amended its technical standards to authorise those digital broadcasters who wish to broadcast in ’16-QAM’ transmission mode to press ahead. This follows the readvertising of licences for three digital terrestrial multiplexes and the success of tenders based on the ’16-QAM’ transmission mode.
In the light of technical assessments, including laboratory trials, and following the licence awards the ITC has said it is minded to mandate ’16-QAM’ as the transmission mode for all DTT services. A consultation on this proposition closed on 12 September.
Proponents of a change to ’16-QAM’ argued strongly that the benefits in terms of coverage and signal robustness justifies making ’16-QAM’ the mandatory transmission standard. Other respondents argued strongly that the research evidence for this was not strong enough to outweigh the disbenefit of reducing the number of services available.
The ITC has decided to commission an independent study to undertake tests in dual mode, ’64-QAM’ and ’16-QAM’ transmission in October when both modes will be in use.
The ITC will shortly be announcing field trials and research to provide practical in-home evidence of the performance of the two transmission modes. The most critical issue to assess will be the potential for differential performance between the public service channels carried at ’64-QAM’, and those at ’16-QAM’, in poor reception areas and in the presence of impulse interference (e.g. from thermostats, car ignitions, refrigerators etc).
This research will allow the Freeview service to launch with its preferred mode and the industry to assess the impact of transmission mode change based on real evidence. The ITC is minded to choose the ’16-QAM’ transmission mode but intends to make a final decision on this issue for the New Year based on the outcome of this research.
BBC and Crown Castle, who between them operate four of the six digital terrestrial television multiplexes, plan to move to a ’16-QAM’ transmission mode from the launch of their new service, known as ‘Freeview’. The remaining two multiplex operators, Digital 3 and 4 and SDN, will be permitted to continue transmission at ’64-QAM’ during this interim period.
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.
