News Broadcasting
CII debate on FDI in print on 26 August in Delhi
NEW DELHI: The recent government decision to allow 26 per cent FDI in news publications and up to 74 per cent in non-news media publications reversed the half a century old ban on foreign investment in the Print Media.
Even as the government is in the process of finalising the guidelines, a section of the industry feels that this step would enable the Indian print industry to access increased funds in the form of foreign equity while the other section is apprehensive about the process of giving access to the foreign institutions to the print medium.
To facilitate discussion on “Living with FDI in print media”, CII is organising a roundtable at 10:30 am, on 26 August at CII Headquarters in New Delhi.
The Roundtable will be addressed by Dileep Padgaonkar, executive managing editor, The Times of India (not in favour of FDI in print medium); TN Ninan, editor, Business Standard and Chandan Mitra, editor, The Pioneer (both pro-FDI).
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.
