News Broadcasting
Asianet stops airing gruesome tragedy scenes
MUMBAI: Asianet has decided to stop beaming gruesome scenes of tragedies. The decision was taken after the channel received negative feedback on the telecast of the images of the Kumbakonam school fire tragedy.
Asianet managing editor K P Mohanan announced the decision while anchoring the Asianet news channel’s live debate programme Focus.
Denying reports that Asianet faced strong objections from non-resident Indian viewers on its telecast of the gruesome scenes, Mohanan told Indiantelevision.com that the decision was based on the channel’s own observation and review of the issue.
“A couple of our dedicated viewers had expressed their disapproval. We don’t know what other channels have decided about it,” he added.
Mohanan pointed out that the channel had conducted a survey on its website to to find out whether viewers like the airing of such gruesome scenes. “It was a close finish with 49 per cent disapproving and 47 per cent approving the airing of such tragic images,” he said.
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.
