News Broadcasting
DD starts daily Sanskrit news capsules
MUMBAI: Doordarshan has started airing Sanskrit news bulletins from Thursday.
The five minute news capsule, started on World Sanskrit Day on 22 August, is being aired at 10 am daily. This brings the public broadcaster on par with its sibling All India Radio, which has been airing early morning Sanskrit news bulletins for the last 35 years. The weekly Sanskrit news magazine on DD, telecast every Sunday, is however, being withdrawn, according to media reports.
The idea is to revive the classic Indian language which is on the verge of being wiped out, according to official sources. Authorities estimate an approximate 15,000 persons in the country are currently conversant in Sanskrit and will be able to avail of the news bulletins. Prasar Bharati has the unenviable task of recruiting professional to read out the bulletins and may have to tap AIR newsreaders, as there is a lack of newscasters, proficient in Sanskrit.
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.
