News Broadcasting
Broadcasters mull legal redress on TRAI notification
NEW DELHI: A section of broadcasters is contemplating taking the legal route to challenge the 15 January 2004 notification of the new broadcasting sheriff – the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
The notification has frozen the prices of cable services in CAS and non CAS areas in the country as on 26 December 2003, till such time as a final view can be taken on the various issues relating to the implementation of conditional access.
The Indian Broadcasting Foundation, which is meeting today in Delhi, is also likely to mull over this move as also the latest developments, including CAS and the formation of a regulator.
According to industry sources, the section that is pushing for challenging the TRAI notification on price freeze feels that the move and the cut-off date is “arbitrary”.
In this regard, some legal opinion too has been obtained, the sources said. However, no final view has been taken on the matter as yet and a clearer picture may arise after the IBF meeting, they added.
Stay tuned for more details.
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.
