News Broadcasting
Astro to tap Indian market via radio services
NEW DELHI: Astro, the entertainment major from Malaysia-based Measat, is once again attempting to tap the Indian market but this time it is doing it through radio services.
Astro CEO Ralph Marshall has been quoted by the Hong Kong-based Media Partners Asia publication Media Routes that the company would expand regionally with pay TV investments in Indonesia and radio ventures in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam.
No details were, however, made available as to the nature of the radio venture that Astro was looking at for the Indian market. The options before Astro, keeping in mind the Indian government guidelines for radio ventures, is to start a digital satellite TV radio service on the lines of those been made available by Worldspace at the moment.
Another option for Astro is to hitch up with a local partner to start community radio services. But the licence procedure for community radio service is cumbersome, which has been a deterrent for several other players. Or else, Astro can optimistically wait for the Indian government to review foreign investment norms in FM radio sector, which is nil at the moment.
But, Astro’s parent company Measat did have a relationship with Indian pubcaster Doordarshan in the mid to late 1990s for starting a KU-band DTH television service in India. The memorandum of understanding was allowed to lapse, as DD did not get the requisite permission from the government.
Astro, an integrated media major (pay TV, radio and movies), has, however said it’s bullish on maintaining robust pay TV subscriber growth at the 300,000/year level and expanding regionally. According to Media Routes, Astro’s first quarter result was marginally below expectations amid noise about piracy and new competition (MiTV, Telekom).
Astro also plans to complete a $300 million syndicated loan facility this year, which will be used to repay its outstanding $250 million term loans. On a conservative note, MPA has forecast that Astro is likely to add slightly under 260,000 subscribers for the 12-month period to end in January 2005, taking Astro’s overall residential subscriber base to 1.542 million.
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.
