News Broadcasting
DD to introduce DTT service in the four main metros
In a move aimed at demonstrating the government’s commitment to make all pay channels mandatorily routed through a conditional access system, national broadcaster Doordarshan is all set to launch its Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT) service in Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata from June.
To access the service a subscriber needs a decoder (set-top-box) which costs about Rs 3,500 and an antenna for Rs 150, according to a report in a leading national daily. The report states that there will be no monthly subscription charge for the service.
DTT will beam 12 channels, five of which will be DD National, DD Metro, DD Bharati, DD Sports and DD India (earlier known as DD World but a name change has taken place effective 13 April). DD plans to generate revenue by leasing the remaining transmitters to private broadcasters to beam the remaining seven channels.
The report quotes DD officials as saying that private broadcasters will be roped in before the year is through. They said that the national broadcaster is in negotiations with niche and city-centric broadcasters.
DD director-general SY Quraishi has been quoted as saying that the aim was to provide a full-fledged bouquet that covers DD’s role as a public broadcaster and a complete entertainment-cum-educational network.
Quaraishi says he expects the price of the set-top-box to come down to as low as Rs 1,000 once its penetration increases in the market. Senior DD officials said that Consumer Electronic and Television Manufacturer’s Association (Cetma) officials have expressed interest in bundling the decoder with new television sets that are to be manufactured in the coming months.
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.
