News Broadcasting
Government okays 100 per cent FDI in advertisig
Except in print, other media seem to getting it easy from the government.
The Indian government has further liberalised foreign direct investment (FDI) in advertising by raising automatic approvals from 74 per cent to 100 per cent. FDI in films was also further freed, and several of the restrictions removed.
These include removal of the condition that only a company with an established track record in films, music, finance and insurance would be permitted to invest in films via the 100 per cent automatic route. Other conditions which have been liberalised include companies being required to have a minimum paid up capital of $ 10 million if the investor is a single largest equity shareholder and $five million in other cases.
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.
