News Broadcasting
DD Metro to continue as a terrestrial-cum-satellite channel
It’s decided to maintain the status quo. The Prasar Bharati has said nyet to conversion of its entertainment service, Doordarshan Metro, as an exclusive satellite channel. DD Metro will continue as a terrestrial channel as it exists today, the Prasar Bharati said in a statement today.
Additionally, DD Metro will continue to be available – as it is currently – to cable TV subscribers through satellite delivery, the statement said.
“DD Metro will continue as a terrestrial channel. It will also be one of the revenue earners,” a Prasar Bharati statement, quoting Prasar Bharati chief executive K S Sarma said.
The Prasar Bharati, according to the statement, has taken the decision after carefully considering the reach of the channel which is now available in most of the A, B1 and B2 cities of India.
DD Metro is also in the process of procuring programmes in the area of entertainment and several new shows are expected to be on air by August this year.
DD Metro, which is broadcast through 102 transmitters, covers 14.2 per cent of the total area and reaches 34.8 per cent of the population. It also has a viewership base of 42.3 million TV households.
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.
