News Broadcasting
Cabinet grants 6-month extn on uplink norms
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Government today gave another extension of six months to news and current affairs channels to reduce foreign holding to 26 per cent as required by policy on uplinking.
“The policy requires the news channels to adhere to a cap of 26 per cent of FDI and the Indian entity to have not less than 51 per cent. But for a variety of reasons, many existing news channels have not been able to conform to this changed system,” information and broadcasting minister Jaipal Reddy told reporters after a Cabinet meeting here.
It is expected that by the time the government comes out with a comprehensive policy on news channels’ shareholding patterns in six months time, the I&B ministry would have also finalised the proposed uplink and downlink norms.
Reddy said the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, “gave its last extension of six months from now (till September, 2005)” to show that its structural equity conforms to this regime. “There will be no further extensions,” he assured.
According to him, the companies operating such channels were earlier required to conform to the revised guidelines by March 2004, that is, to restructure their equity to conform to these guidelines.
Interestingly, Zee News is still to restructure itself as being part of the Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Telefilms makes it have foreign/NRI shareholding that is way above the permissible limit. A senior executive of the network admitted that the company is still in the process of restructuring the shareholding pattern.
The decision for extension of the deadline will give time to the ministry to finalise the proposal to review the uplinking guidelines, Reddy added. But this line has been given every time, three to be precise, an extension has been okayed by the Cabinet.
Meanwhile, Indiantelevision.com’s information is that the government may take a decision on allowing foreign institutional investors (FIIs) having a holding in news channel ventures later this month, which could pave the way for issuing a clarification on the issue relating to uplinking.
Sometime back, Reddy had told journalists during an informal meeting that this ministry has agreed to allow FII investments in news channels as long as it was kept within the total foreign holding cap. However, this decision too needs a Cabinet okay.
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.
