News Broadcasting
Covid-19: NBA issues directives to news channels on social distancing
MUMBAI: The Board of Directors of News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has requested all news broadcasters to take certain preventive measures immediately to ensure social distancing to deal with Coronavirus. NBA president Rajat Sharma stated in a press release that keeping in mind the fact that news broadcasting is an essential service, studios and broadcast offices cannot be shut down.
The measures stipulated by the NBA are:
1. Steps should be taken to minimize staff in the broadcast centres and all those employees who can work from home should be requested to work from their residence.
2. All reporters and camerapersons, who are out in the field among the public, shall not come to their offices but send their news feeds from the field.
3. All reporters and camera persons should not to crowd around individuals to collect sound bites. They should maintain a distance of at least four feet from one another while holding their mikes in pursuance of the WHO guidelines.
4. NBA has requested Delhi government to earmark a particular parking lot for parking DSNG vans so that these vehicles may not be required to return to office.
5. NBA has asked all member news channels to telecast special programmes to create awareness among the public about precautions to be followed to counter the Coronavirus threat.
Photo by Tyler Casey on Unsplash
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.
