News Broadcasting
B4U Movies targets end August for going pay
MUMBAI: B4U Movies, the stand alone channel that is going the pay way, aims to complete the seeding of set top boxes throughout the country by the end of the month.
The channel, which had earlier planned full encryption by end July, has started an encryption feed from 5 August. Chief distribution officer Debashish Dey says the STBs have just arrived and are being currently despatched to various parts of the country. The channel, says Dey, has received a very good response from the northern, western and eastern parts of the country. An estimated 5000 STBs are being distributed, he said. B4U is using the Smart-card from Nagravision as the encryption module and will switch off the analog feed from 30 August, he said.
B4U Movies will cost the subscriber Rs 8.90 per month. The channel is offering 15 per cent discount on its subscription rate to cable operators making advance payments or quarterly payments. The only channel that is going pay on its own without relying on a bouquet, B4U Music will also take the encryption route from December 2002, says Dey.
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.
