News Broadcasting
Adult fare ban: guarded response from channels
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court’s order issued yesterday restraining TV channels from telecasting adult movies or programmes without prior permission of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has been greeted cautiously by the TV industry. Some of the channels remained non-committal when queried about their next step.
AXN programming head Rohit Bhandari said the channel would continue with its present schedule since it hasn’t received the court order yet.
“We will continue with our present schedule. We are not going to take any show off as of now since the court order hasn’t reached us yet. We will plan our future moves only after having a look at the ruling. Adhering to the present guidelines we have been telecasting adult programmes in the late-night time band (11:00 pm – 6:00 pm) only,” said Bhandari.
Zee TV business head Abhijit Saxena reserved his comments saying the channel had yet to receive the order. Star TV and Sun TV officials were unavailable for comment.
The issue has come up following a ruling delivered yesterday on a PIL filed by a Mumbai resident. Chief Justice DS Bhandari and Justice DY Chandrachud has issued an order restraining channels, among which are Star TV, Sony TV, Zee TV, Udaya TV, AXN TV and Sun Network’s Surya TV, from telecasting adult movies and programmes without prior permission of the CBFC. The court has also asked the channels to file affidavits stating how many adult movies were shown during the last three months with timing details.
In the light of the ban, some of the movies Star Movies has lined up for September might raise a few eyebrows, not so much the selection as the timing. The channel is premiering The Guru on 4 September at 9 pm. On 25 September it scheduled to telecast the Jennifer Aniston starrer The Good Girl at 9 pm. The Angelina Jolie starrer Mojave Moon is scheduled for a 7:05 pm airing on 19 September. Another Jolie starrer Original Sin is slotted at 6:50 pm on 26 September.
In the late-night time band AXN has been telecasting adult shows Hot and Wild, Celebrities Uncensored and Bikini Destinations. HBO has the adult show Sex and the City for the late night viewer segment and Zee English is set to premiere Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar 2000-2004 on 5 September.
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.
