News Broadcasting
Bombay HC refuses interim bail to Arnab Goswami in abetment case
NEW DELHI: Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, and the two other accused in the 2018 abetment to suicide case, have been denied interim bail by the Bombay high court. However, the accused still have the liberty to approach the sessions court for regular bail.
The bench comprising Justice SS Shinde and MS Karnik had a special sitting today to pronounce orders that were reserved on Saturday evening after a six-hour-long hearing.
“Rejection of interim application shall not be construed as an impediment to the petitioner seeking alternate remedies. Observations are prima facie in nature confined to the present application only,” the bench said in the order.
Read our coverage of the 2018 abetment case
Earlier in the day, Goswami has moved a regular bail application in the Alibaug sessions court seeking his release from judicial custody. Bombay high court has asked the lower court to decide on the bail application within four days of filing.
Goswami was arrested on the morning of 4 November in a case registered by the Raigad police in 2018 for allegedly abetting the suicide of an interior designer, Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik. He was remanded to judicial custody by CJM Alibag and was kept at a local school which has been designated as a Covid2019 centre for the Alibaug prison. Yesterday, he was shifted to Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai on allegation of using a mobile phone while in judicial custody.
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.
