News Broadcasting
Action against TV channels for insulting Mahatama Gandhi
NEW DELHI / MUMBAI: Two Indian news channels IBN-7 and Sahara showing a controversial clip showing Mahatma Gandhi wielding an AK 47 and then doing a modern dance jig aired by a foreign website have earned the ire of the Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi.
The Minister has taken serious exception to the two channels trying to copy the website youtube.com to denigrate Mahatma Gandhi, ‘tantamounting to an assault to the dignity of the Father of the Nation’ according to a press release.
The Minister has directed the Ministry to give due cognizance to the matter and take necessary action as per law. The Minister wanted the channels to express profound apology to the nation by both the channels in their telecast during prime time today.
CHANNELS EXPRESS REGRET
Just hours after the minister’s warning, both the channels went into damage control. “…our intention is not to denigrate the honour of our father of the nation, but to ensure action on the vulgar and cheap act which is available for public view on the website for quite some time,” the Press Trust of India news agency quoted a spokesman for Sahara as saying.
Emphasising that the channel had “immense respect and affection” towards Gandhi, the channel said, “Even then if this news has hurt some of our brethren and countrymen, we from the core of our heart regret it.”
Taking a similar tack, IBN 7 managing Editor Ashutosh said, “We are equally hurt and disturbed and share the outrage of fellow countrymen. We are clarifying our outrage over the incident to the viewers.”
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.
