News Broadcasting
Canal+ hails move to introduce CAS in India
Interactivity in TV viewing will see the light of day in India with the proposed introduction of Conditional Access Systems (CAS), says Canal+ Technologies general manager sales-Asia/Pacific Nicolas Andrieu.
CAS, says Andrieu, will be the key to the concept of pay TV, hitherto unknown in India. “The role of CAS in the pay-TV segment is going to be monumental as it alone can ensure that everyone, from the Broadcasters to MSOs and viewers, all benefit. CAS would ensure that the broadcasters’ rights to their content are not violated; that the MSOs get their fair share of revenues from the subscribers; and last, but not the least, the viewers pay only for what they watch and not for what is being fed to them indiscriminately according to the whims and fancies of the cable operators”, he says in a statement.
The imminent introduction of CAS definitely augurs well for Canal +, a global leader in providing Conditional Access systems Mediaguard to over 30 digital operators and broadcasters. It is also a leading international provider of digital and interactive TV software solutions with more than 13.1 million set-top boxes powered by its software. It is one of the founding members and a very active participant of the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) consortium and has been implementing DVB CAS solutions since 1996. WINfirst in the US, CANALSATELLITE in France, Astro Measat and Zee TV are some of Canal+’s clients worldwide.
Says Andrieu, “The Indian viewers are no longer shackled to the old conventional TV viewing. They can now, exercise their freedom of choice, the essence of any open economy.”
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.
