News Broadcasting
Barc to resume news genre ratings with immediate effect: MIB
Mumbai: The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has asked Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) India to resume TV audience measurement ratings for the news genre with immediate effect and also release three months of data for the genre in a monthly format.
As per the revised system, the reporting of news and niche genres shall be on a four-week rolling average concept. “This is to ensure fair, equitable representation of true trends,” said MIB in a statement on Wednesday.
The ministry has also set up a ‘working group’ under the chairmanship of the Prasar Bharati CEO for the consideration of leveraging the Return Path Data (RPD) capabilities for the use of TRP services, as also recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the TRP committee report. The committee shall submit its report in four months’ time.
In a statement, the I&B ministry said, “In the spirit of the TRP committee report and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI’s) recommendation dated 28.04.2020, M/s Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has undertaken revision in its processes, protocols, oversight mechanism and initiated changes in governance structure etc. The reconstitution of the board and the technical committee to allow for the induction of independent members have also been initiated by BARC. A permanent oversight committee has also been formed. The access protocols for data have been revamped and tightened.”
According to MIB, Barc has indicated that in view of changes undertaken by it, they are reaching out to related constituencies to explain the new proposals and are in readiness to actually commence the release as per the new protocols.
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.
