News Broadcasting
DD Metro all set to expand its reach to the non-metros
Alarmed by the growing reach of private satellite channels, Doordarshan is finally getting its act together and is looking to increase the penetration of DD-2, or DD Metro as it is known, to almost 40% of national network.
For this purpose it has commissioned a total of 30 new terrestrial transmitters over a period of next three months. According to Prasar Bharati, the high power transmitters will increase its penetration by over 130 million viewers. It has also commissioned new low power transmitters which will increase its penetration by another 2 million.
Besides this Prasar Bharati has also issued notices in newspapers inviting tenders for the hauling down of its existing VHF Band III Ant. System and hauling up of new VHF Band III antenna system for DD-2 Transmitters at Raipur, Nagpur, Indore and Bhopal.
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.
