News Broadcasting
DD misses Prasar Bharati CEO Sarma’s ‘Olympic’ run
NEW DELHI: Some are saying it’s poetic justice, but it can only happen in Doordarshan.
The only broadcaster with the permission to cover the whole of the Olympic torch relay live in Delhi today, the Indian pubcaster did that, but missed covering the parent organisation’s chief executive, KS Sarma,
running with the torch. The live coverage was happening on Doordarshan Sports.
It was left to a sister channel, DD News, to have a brief clip of Sarma with the torch, mouthing words like it was a great honour for him and the
organisation to have covered a historic event.
Sarma is the CEO of Prasar Bharati, an autonomous organisation that looks after DD and All India Radio.
What could have added insult to injury is the fact DD had deployed more than half a dozen OB vans to cover extensively and live the Olympic torch relay, which not only generated a lot of hype, also huge amounts of criticism for having been hijacked by politicians and sundry celebrities, most of whom have very little to do with any kind of sports. Ironically, the “tamasha” could find no place for Indian sporting greats like Milka Singh or PT Usha.
Even Aaj Tak had a clipping of the parent company’s owner-promoter, Aroon Purie, running with the torch.
Though DD officials have been passing the buck for the lapse of missing Sarma, a source in the organisation admitted that the faux pas happened as “there was some confusion on Sarma’s timing of carrying the torch, which people down the order did not care to confirm.”
Thankfully, Sarma is said to have taken the development in his stride and despite being an officious organisation, no heads are expected to roll for this lapse.
But media experts observed that DD Sports’ coverage of the torch relay has exemplified that the organisation needs to be rejuvenated with people who can think quick and also know the difference between live coverage and recording an event for future broadcast.
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.
