News Broadcasting
MV Kamath appointed Prasar Bharati ch’man for 6 years
NEW DELHI: The President of India, on the advice of a selection board, has appointed M V Kamath as chairman of the Prasar Bharati board for a term of six years.
The order came into effect from 23 November 2003. The terms and conditions of his appointment shall be governed by the provisions of the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990 and the rules made thereunder.
The appointment of Kamath has been made under sub-section (1) of Section 4 of the Prasar Bharati Act. Prasar Bharati, an autonomous body, looks after the functioning of India’s pubcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio.
Earlier, Kamath, said to be close to the RSS (the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s parent organisation ), had been made the chairman of Prasar Bharati for the remaining period of the tenure of the previous chairman through an order dated 7 January 2003.
Kamath is the third chairman of the Prasar Bharati after Nikhil Chakravarty and Prof U R Rao, both of whom did not complete their full term of six years. Chakravarty, a veteran journalist like Kamath, died without finishing his tenure, while Rao quit citing personal reasons last year.
At a time when the government is looking at tightening its control over pubcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio, Kamath’s present tenure may turn out to be crucial for the future roadmap of DD and AIR.
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.
