News Broadcasting
No relief for Arnab Goswami as Bombay HC reserves order
NEW DELHI: After a six-hour-long special hearing on Saturday, the Bombay high court has reserved its order on Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami’s plea seeking interim release from custody in the 2018 abetment to suicide case. The court is expected to release orders in the coming week.
The bench headed by justice SS Shinde and MS Karnik refused to pass an immediate order of interim relief but clarified that the pendency of the case in the high court will not bar the petitioners from seeking regular bail under section 439 before the concerned court. The decision will have to be given by the concerned court, in case of filing of such a petition by Goswami and other petitioners, within four days.
“We can't pass order today. It is already six. Meanwhile we will clarify that pendency of the petition will not bar the petitioner from approaching the sessions court for bail and if such an application is filed, it should be decided within four days,” the bench observed.
When senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing on behalf of Goswami, pressed for interim bail, the court said that it could not pass an order immediately, and that it needed to consider the compilations and submissions made by the parties involved in the case.
It was the third consecutive day of hearing of the habeas corpus plea made by Goswami stating that his arrest in a “decisively closed” case was “illegal” and was done with the intent of vendetta by the Maharashtra government and Mumbai police for his critical reportage.
Goswami remains in 14-day judicial custody after he was arrested from his Mumbai residence on the morning of Wednesday, 4 November.
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.
