News Broadcasting
Anti-broadcaster slogans raised at pro-CAS demonstration in capitals
NEW DELHI: A protest demonstration called by the Consumer Action Network (CAN) highlighting the “consumer’s point of view” on the issue of conditional access systems (CAS) in central Delhi today saw anti- broadcaster slogans being raised
The demonstrators also expressed their ire at the government for dragging its feet on clearing the amendments to the Cable TV (Networks) Regulation Act that will facilitate implementation of CAS. The Rajya Sabha (Upper House) has still to clear the Cable TV (Networks) Amendment Bill 2002. Lacking a majority in the Upper House, the government needs to to evolve a consensus around the bill if it has to get it passed.
Meanwhile, the press conference called today by the Delhi-based National Cable and Telecom Association (NCTA) to highlight the inadequacy of the government in enacting the CAS legislation turned out to be a tame affair with all the speakers re-iterating that the technology sought to be implemented is good and cannot be so easily tampered with as has been alleged.
A certain section of the broadcast industry has alleged that the analog set top box, central to the CAS rollout, can easily be tampered with and hence the issue of piracy of signals cannot be addressed through the present CAS system the government seeks to implement.
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.
