News Broadcasting
Govt. seems agreeable to main pay channels coming within Rs 200: Mukerjea
NEW DELHI: The Indian government is not averse to the idea if the main channels, including the sports and entertainment ones like Star Plus, Zee TV, Sony, Star Sports, etc, being priced within Rs 200, while the rest can come at an extra cost.
This was indicated to Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea during a meeting he had today with additional secretary (broadcasting) in the information and broadcasting ministry, Vijay Singh.
Pointing out that on Monday a meeting with broadcasters would be held on CAS, Singh said that if the main channels come for Rs 200, it would be okay with the government. If the hint is to be taken then the pay channels would price themselves accordingly, though there seems to be some resistance from broadcasters to come out with a la carte price for pay channels.
Still, Mukerjea told indiantelevision.com, “Star will come back with a pricing that is better explained for its logic and would have to be lower than what they are because the Prime Minister has said that he would like CAS to be consumer-friendly. If he has said so, we will have to do something (with the price).” We that the price of Star channels may work out to something between Rs 35-40 “depending on the number of boxes that are there in the market.” So, it’s the boxes that are important.
Earlier, talking to journalists a relaxed Mukerjea took on the cable operators and critics of the prices that were conveyed sometime back by Star, Sony and ESPN-Star Sports, which was described by the I&B ministry secretary as a “non-serious offer”.
Saying that “people with limited intelligence” could not understand the logic behind the price, Mukerjea said that what the cable ops did was to add up all the a la carte prices and tom-tom it as being too high. “The prices have been misread and we would come back in a few days time with a better interpretation of the prices suggested,” he added.
According to Mukerjea, the pricing, supported by Sony, Star and ESS, was based on the fact that those who would buy a la carte would not buy all channels and those who would buy all channels would buy the bouquets or the tiers. “Either way, the viewers stands to gain,” he added.
He also said that in the earlier pricing Zee had been included with all Zee channels totaling up to Rs 60, but now “talks are being held with Mr. Jawahar Goel” in this regard.”
His main message seems to be that the pricing suggested through various tiers need to be better explained to the industry, government and conveyed properly to the consumers.
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.
