News Broadcasting
17 regional broadcasters get free MPEG-4 slots on DD Free Dish
NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati has cleared 17 regional television channels for free carriage on DD Free Dish’s MPEG-4 platform, widening access to regional language content on India’s largest free-to-air direct-to-home service.
The allocation, made under the public broadcaster’s 93rd allotment round, will run on a pilot basis until March 31, 2026. The move is aimed at expanding linguistic diversity on DD Free Dish while testing demand ahead of long-term slot allotment norms.
The selected channels include TV9 Kannada, Public TV and Mazhavil Manorama, alongside a strong Bengali slate featuring ABP Ananda, R Bangla, TV9 Bangla, R Plus Gold, Kolkata TV, R Plus Bengali, Enterr 10 Bangla and Khushboo Bangla.
Other regional additions include Kanak News (Odia), ABP Majha and 9X Jhakaas (Marathi), ABP Asmita and Gujarat First (Gujarati), and News State Punjab-Haryana-Himachal (Punjabi).
Under the pilot framework, the channels will be carried on DD Free Dish’s MPEG-4 feeds without carriage fees, giving broadcasters access to the platform’s mass reach while offering viewers a richer regional mix.
The move underlines Prasar Bharati’s push to strengthen regional broadcasting and reinforce DD Free Dish’s role as a key distribution pipe for free television in a fragmenting media market.
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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: 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.
