News Broadcasting
Cable industry seeks government intervention
It’s a cable industry versus broadcasters battle that promises to be long drawn if the government does not intervene soon.
The Cable TV Equipment Traders and Manufacturers’ Association (CTMA) which met in Kolkata this week, has urged the setting up of a regulatory body on the lines of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. This umbrella authority should lay down guidelines for the cable TV industry in the country, determine fixed cable and pay channel tariffs and delve into issues that are of growing importance to the cable TV industry, the CTMA says.
The National Cable and Telecommunication Association (NCTA), a consortium of cable ops in the Delhi region, holds similar opinions. The NCTA, which has filed a petition against a private broadcaster in the Delhi high court this week, has called upon the government to probe the legality of foreign pay TV channels in accordance with the prevailing laws of the land.
An NCTA release says: “The Government must form uniform guidelines for governance, entry, and operations of all foreign pay channels,” and goes on to claim that “while pay TV subscriptions have increased by over 1,000 per cent in the last five years, the government is yet to ensure a fair pricing mechanism and impose a freeze on current subscription rates till conditional access system is introduced.” NCTA president Vikki Choudhry accuses private broadcasters of stalling the implementation of conditional access system for pay TV channels as recommended by a I&B ministry task force.
CTMA secretary Sanjay Mansukhani also told a news conference on Tuesday that cable ops were hesitant to invest in upgradation programmes in the absence of specified laws and regulations governing the industry. The cable manufacturers have pinned their hopes on the Convergence Bill that may address some on their concerns. The CTMA claims to service nearly 36 million households across the country.
The NCTA has issued an open letter also addressed to Chief Justice of India, leader of the opposition Sonia Gandhi, members of Parliament and ministries of Home Affairs, Finance, Communications, Information and Broadcasting and Law asking for the Government to step in to resolve the issue.
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.
