News Broadcasting
Delhi-based cable body to black out ESPN Star Sports
The Delhi-based National Cable and Telecommunications Association, representing a section of cable operators in the north, says it will switch off retransmission for ESPN Star Sports for two months.
An NCTA release says that at yesterday’s meeting of the NC TA in New Delhi, the cable TV service providers agreed to take a consolidated stand against “the arbitrary increase in the subscription fee” for the two channels. Among the independent cable TV service providers and MSOs who the NCTA says have decided to do battle with ESPN are the Zee group promoted Siti Cable, the Hinduja Group’s InCablenet, Hathway Cables promoted Win Cable, Home Cable and Spectra Net. According to the NCTA release, the MSOs decided while transmission would be suspended for an initial period of two months, they would also be collectively returning the viewing cards of the IRD’S provided by ESPN Software, so that they are not charged for the duration in which they do not avail the services of the two channels for re-distribution.
Sources in Hathway however denied that they had switched of the feed and said both the channels were being screened. Queried as to whether Win Cable (Hathway is an 80 per cent stakeholder while the remaining 20 per cent is held by ETC Networks Ltd) had signed on to the new subscription regime of ESPN Star Sports, he said talks were still on. The NCTA has taken offence at the print advertisement put out by ESPN Software in some English dailies, allegedly ‘derogatory’ to cable TV service providers. The meeting decided to initiate necessary legal steps against ESPN Software in protest against the offending ad, which is ostensibly meant to goad the viewer into insisting for the two sports channels from the cable op. The ops say the viewers are unconvinced that the hike is justified, as both channels are “event based and are watched only for the duration that any major sports event is transmitted.”
“The stand taken by the service providers is significant because this pay TV broadcaster insist upon charging subscription fee from Cable TV service providers even for the duration they do not avail the services of the said company for redistribution purposes,” says the NCTA release. The association has also asked that if any advance payment has already been made to the pay channels by the cable ops, it will have to be adjusted once redistribution is resumed.
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.
