News Broadcasting
Contempt notice against Union Home Secretary, I&B Secretary
NEW DELHI: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court issued contempt notices to Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami and Information and Broadcasting Secretary, Bimal Julka for not following its orders.
Justice Ajai Lamba issued this notice on the contempt petition filed by social activist Dr. Nutan Thakur against not following the orders issued by the bench of Justice Uma Nath Singh and Justice Mahendra Dayal who had directed them to decide Thakur’s representations within four weeks.
The representations related to framing guideline to direct the newspaper publishers and news channel broadcasters to keep record of their newspapers for a definite period.
The plea was also that these records be provided to those asking for them on a nominal fee and to take specific names of the newspapers and news channels being referred to in their news instead of using cryptic words like one newspaper or one news channel.
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.
