News Broadcasting
7 broadcast networks have 72 hours to revert to weekly TV ratings
MUMBAI: Seven broadcast networks which have told TAM to shift to monthly reporting of TV ratings of their channels have been given 72 hours to revert to weekly reporting, after which all advertising release orders (ROs) for spot bookings will stand cancelled. This is contrary to reports that advertisers have already sent RO cancellations effective last evening.
The CEO of a channel told Indiantelevision.com that his network has received emails pertaining to large advertisers like Levers, Procter & Gamble, Loreal, Dabur, ITC, Britannia, Marico and Godrej. “But I don’t expect any cancellations between today and Monday. The action will begin on Tuesday.”
Agrees Group M south Asia CEO C.V. L Srinivas: “Notices have been sent out across the board from our clients as of yesterday evening. Advertisers are quite clear: they are not going to carry spots on channels for which there is no data.”
Almost 102 channels come under these networks and this figure has gone up to 105 with Discovery Networks also writing to TAM wanting to be reported on a monthly basis.
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.
