News Broadcasting
Bihar magistrate decrees temporary stay on ‘Ramkhilavaan n family’
MUMBAI: If not punitive action, Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav’s supporters have at least managed a temporary stay on the telecast of Ramkhilavaan CM n family the Sabe TV spoof that the channel vociferously maintains is not intended to be a spoof on the former Bihar chief minister.
Patna’s chief judicial magistrate on Monday temporarily stayed the telecast of the controversial serial till 27 August. The order was reportedly faxed to the producers to ensure that Monday’s episode too was not telecast. The order was faxed to SAB Network chairman cum MD Gautam Adhikari, who is among the eight accused for bringing ‘bad repute’ to Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Yadav, his chief minister wife Rabri Devi and his family.
The magistrate has directed SAB to reply within a week, stating reasons why the telecast should not be permanently stopped, media reports from the Bihar capital say. The magistrate also turned down the company’s petition seeking three weeks’ time to approach the Supreme Court for hearing all petitions filed in this respect, reports say.
The magistrate however felt that the producers be given another chance to submit their side of the case so that the case, filed by one Radha Raman Pradhan, could be adjudged on its merits, the reports added. The Adhikari Brothers had failed to respond to the court’s show cause notice returnable by 17 August and have filed their own petition seeking a hearing outside Bihar.
While maintaining that the serial was indeed derogatory prima facie, the court said that it would decide on ordering a permanent stay after hearing the replies from the defendants.
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.
