News Broadcasting
NTO 2.0: Sony revises tariffs in new RIO effective 1 April
Mumbai: Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) has published its new reference interconnect offer in compliance with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) new tariff order (NTO) 2.0 effective from 1 April.
The broadcaster owns and operates 16 channels and has revised tariffs for its Hindi GECs, sports, Hindi movie, kids and infotainment channels.
Previously priced at Rs 19, SPNI has revised the MRP of its Hindi GECs Sony SAB (Rs 23) and Sony Entertainment Television (Rs 24), and sports channels Sony Six (Rs 20), Sony Ten 1 (Rs 20), Sony Ten 2 (Rs 20), Sony Ten 3 (Rs 12) and Sony Ten 4 (Rs 12). Earlier priced at Rs 2, it has hiked the tariffs for its kids’ channel Sony Yay! and infotainment channel Sony BBC Earth to Rs 3. It has also slashed the pricing of its Hindi movie channel Set Max from Rs 15 to Rs 12.
As per NTO 2.0 regulations, Trai mandated that a channels’ MRP must not exceed Rs 12 for it to be included in any bouquet.
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.
