News Broadcasting
CAS rollout deadline not sacrosanct: I&B secretary Pawan Chopra
MUMBAI: Is the “non-negotiable” deadline of 14 July for the rollout of conditioinal access in the four metros about to be extended? Looks likely.
Information and broadcasting ministry secretary Pawan Chopra says “CAS will be enforced more vigorously in time but admits next month’s launch date is not ‘sacrosanct’.”
Chopra made this comment in an interview to BBC World. The interview will appear on this Sunday’s edition of India Business Report .
“I think we have a fairly good amount of consensus emerging on this,” he tells presenter Manvi Dhillon. “We should not treat the date of 15th July as so sacrosanct, that next day everybody who does not have a set top box will be arrested. We will have a close look at the situation, and we will be flexible in the initial stages. As time goes on, the law will be enforced more vigorously.”
Chopra also hints at the creation of a regulatory authority at a later stage. “The government had to fall back and had to play the role of regulator, but I am sure that the next thing we will be looking at is a Broadcasting Regulatory Authority.”
The issue of CAS has been politically charged in India, with a number of those involved disagreeing on many issues. Chopra says: “If we are all sensible, all the stakeholders, the cable operators, the MSOs [multi-system operators], the broadcasters, I think we can do something which is useful for everybody in the long run. Useful for the customer, the viewer of TV, and I think it will lead to the upgradation of TV services in the country… When you change over to a new system, there are bound to be fears, and everybody is jostling for a better share of a future cake. We are not sure of the size of that future cake, despite all the hype and what has been reported in the media,” he explains.
He adds that CAS implementation is a pressing need and will benefit consumers in the long run. “Over the last two years, the rates for cable TV have increased very sharply, almost doubled in the metros. The objective was to stop arbitrary price increases. So you separate the free-to-air channels and rent for cable service from the actual cost of pay channels, so people can see for themselves what they are paying for.”
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.
